House Republicans have made inroads into unraveling some of the mysteries surrounding the origins of COVID-19 three years after the pandemic swept the world.
The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic was tasked with investigating the origins of COVID-19 in early January 2023 under the leadership of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Since then, Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) has overseen several developments in not only identifying the source of the pandemic but also strengthening mechanisms to prevent emergencies of a similar magnitude.
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Here are the most important moments from the COVID-19 origins investigation from 2023.
Wuhan lab report
In March 2023, Congress unanimously passed the COVID-19 Origin Act, which gave the Office of the Director of National Intelligence 90 days to declassify and release intelligence on the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the laboratory postulated to be the source of SARS-CoV-2.
Three days after the deadline set by Congress, the report was published, confirming that the intelligence community is divided on the precise origin of SARS-CoV-2.
The National Intelligence Council, along with four other agencies in the intelligence community, found that the initial infection was most likely caused by natural exposure to an infected animal. However, the Department of Energy and the FBI assessed that “a laboratory-associated incident was the most likely cause of the first human infection with SARS-CoV-2,” according to the report.
Most of the intelligence agencies are in agreement that the virus was not laboratory-adapted, and all agree that the virus was not developed as a bioweapon.
Suppression of the lab leak theory
The select subcommittee spent significant time this year investigating the writing and publication of the scientific paper, “The proximal origins of SARS-CoV-2,” published in Nature Medicine in March 2020, that discredited the lab leak theory.
In June, the select subcommittee subpoenaed the paper’s authors and produced a detailed report outlining the involvement of the National Institutes of Health in the initial research stages of the paper’s publication.
Communications between the paper’s authors in late January 2020 indicated they initially believed the virus came from a lab accident, but the authors quickly changed their perspective following a phone call with top NIH and World Health Organization officials on Feb. 1, 2020.
On the call was then-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, then-NIH Director Francis Collins, then-NIH Ethics Director Lawrence Tabak, and World Health Organization Chief Medical Scientist Jeremy Farrar, then the director of the Wellcome Trust.
Kristian Andersen and Robert Garry, two of the authors of the paper, testified before the select subcommittee in July and denied any conspiracy to distort evidence to discredit the lab leak theory.
Following this testimony, the Department of Health and Human Services has persistently stonewalled congressional investigations into the origins of the virus, with staff claiming that the HHS does not have the manpower or technical resources to comply with information requests.
Bipartisan calls for strengthening biosafety
Strengthening domestic and international biosafety and biosecurity standards has emerged as a bipartisan priority from the origins investigation.
The theme began to take center stage in mid-October, when the subcommittee held a hearing to discuss strategies to increase oversight of dangerous pathogen research that has been an essential tool in predicting viral outbreaks and preventing pandemics.
Although members have floated possible reforms to domestic bioresearch safety, including stricter regulations of funding, reforms to the WHO‘s ability to enforce existing international rules have been a recent focus of the subcommittee.
Several witnesses in subcommittee hearings since October have testified that the WHO does not have enough enforcement power to hold nations accountable for violating agreed-to standards limiting the conduct of hazardous pathogen research.
Top priorities for 2024
Wenstrup announced on Nov. 9 that he would not be seeking reelection after serving 11 years in Congress, leaving the Republican leadership of the committee open with the start of the 119th Congress in 2025. But until then, the panel has several important tasks.
Fauci willingly agreed to transcribed interviews for Jan. 8 and 9, detailing his role in determining the origins of the virus and in advising Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Dates for a public hearing before the whole committee have not been made available.
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Wenstrup also intends to meet with WHO officials, including Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, with the hopes of discussing ways to prevent the public health agency from being used as a geopolitical pawn by the Chinese Communist Party.
In the spring of 2024, the WHO will release to member states the final draft of the Pandemic Accords, an international agreement governing pandemic preparedness in the event of future global public health crises.
