Did China Release COVID-19?

Much is coming out about China and its relationship to COVID-19. The House Oversight and Accountability Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic held a hearing on the origin of COVID-19 despite a warning of disapproval of China.

During the hearing, several lawmakers questioned U.S. responsibility in funding gain-of-function research. Gain-of-function is “the process of making a disease more dangerous or contagious for the purpose of studying a response” according to Fred Lucas. 

The U.S. government looks guilty because it “gave about $600,000 to EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that in turn used the money to pay for coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.” Lucas listed “four takeaways from the hearing.”

1. Lab Leak ‘Only Explanation Credibly Supported by Intelligence, Science, and Common Sense’

The head of U.S. intelligence agencies under President Donald Trump told the panel that a leak from a laboratory is the only reasonable explanation for the rapid spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.

“My informed assessment, as a person with as much or more access than anyone to our government’s intelligence during the initial year of the virus outbreak and pandemic onset, has been and continues to be that a lab leak is the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, by science, and by common sense,” former National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe, who served from May 2020 until Jan. 21, 2021, testified….

If this were a trial, Ratcliffe said, “the preponderance of circumstantial evidence” from known intelligence would prompt a jury’s guilty verdict “to an accusation that the coronavirus research in the Wuhan lab was responsible for spawning a global pandemic.”

He added: “The Chinese Communist Party would be convicted of going to great lengths to cover up the virus’ origins.” …

2. ‘How-To Manual in Orchestrating a Cover-up’

House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., laid much of the responsibility at the feet of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the recently retired, longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“These scientists have flipped 180 degrees with no new evidence, produced a paper not based on facts, and then may have used that paper to brief the intelligence community and suppress the lab leak hypothesis,” Comer said during the hearing.

“This is a how-to manual in orchestrating a cover-up by using some of the most powerful and influential institutions in our country,” he said. “If you ask me, this was set in motion by Dr. Fauci to hide U.S. funding of gain-of-function research and dodge accountability for a virus that has killed more than 1 million Americans.” ….

3. Wenstrup to China: ‘Intimidation Tactics Will Not Work’

The House select subcommittee will send a letter to the Chinese ambassador to the United States telling the Chinese government to stop trying to intimidate and obstruct the congressional investigation into the origins of COVID-19.

Rep. Brad Wenstrup, chairman of the subcommittee, referred to an email message to the panel last week from the Chines Embassy.

“I am reaching out to express our grave concern regarding the COVID-19 origins hearing to be chaired by Congressman Wenstrup next Tuesday,” Li Xiang, a counselor with the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said in the April 14 email.

“We firmly oppose it,” Li went on to say.

“We have some news for Beijing. These intimidation tactics will not work,” Wenstrup said early in the hearing Tuesday. “It will not slow down our work. And we will not cease. After the hearing, I’ll be sending a letter to the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. requesting that China cease intimidation tactics and cooperate with this investigation.”

The panel’s chairman also noted that this has been a pattern for the Chinese government, referencing an October 2021 report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

“What is clear is that China does not want the globe to know the origins [of COVID-19],” Wenstrup said. “They dodge and duck every legitimate attempt to investigate this question. According to the fact sheet, China has systematically prevented a transparent and thorough investigation of the COVID pandemic’s origins. According to the ODNI report, China has hindered global investigations.”

4. ‘Hiroshima Event’

The gravity of a man-made virus should carry the same alarm as that of a nuclear bomb, noted Feith, the former State Department official in charge of East Asian and Pacific affairs, commenting on the COVID-19 death toll.

“If COVID emerged from a lab, particularly one conducting gain-of-function virology experiments with technologies invented only a few years ago, then this was akin to a Hiroshima event, revealing new and modern high-tech risks to human civilizations and even our species,” Feith told the select subcommittee….