Republicans are expected to intensify their investigation into the origins of the Covid pandemic if, as many pollsters expect, they gain control of the House of Representatives.
Several top GOP lawmakers in influential bodies have signaled their intention to launch a full investigation into the possibility that the coronavirus was a devastating result of risky gain-of-function research and escaped from a high-security lab.
The GOP will examine not only the biological origins of the coronavirus and attempts by the Chinese government to obscure its role in its spread, but also the use of taxpayer money in the form of research grants to fund risky research.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology, which many on the right believe the coronavirus escaped, was one of the beneficiaries of government funding for high-risk research.
dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s leading infectious disease expert, who became famous for his leadership in halting the spread of Covid-19, is also a target.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who is poised to step up to chair the Energy and Trade Committee, would be given the power to subpoena government officials as part of an inquiry into the origin of Covid
Rep. James Comer (R-KY) intends to nominate Dr. Pressuring Anthony Fauci on the origin of Covid and its role in the onset of the pandemic to silence dissenting voices in the scientific community that have not subscribed to the natural spillover theory.
Whether the global outbreak started with a spillover from wild animals sold at the market or leaked from the Wuhan lab just eight miles across the Yangtze River has sparked heated debates about how to prevent the next pandemic. New studies point to natural spillover to Huanan’s wildlife market. Positive swab samples from floors, cages and counters are also tracing the virus to stalls in the south-west corner of the market (below left), where animals with the potential to harbor Covid were then sold for meat or fur (below right).
Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology during the visit of the WHO team tasked with investigating the origins of Covid, February 3, 2021
Republicans like Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who may soon head the House Oversight and Reform Committee, intend Dr. Forcing Fauci to testify about apparent efforts by him to silence scientific experts who supported the lab leak theory.
While Fauci said in August he intended to leave government service by the end of the year, Rep Comer hinted that the doctor could still be on the hook to appear before Congress.
“Retirement can Dr. Not shielding Fauci from congressional oversight,” Rep Comer said.
With Democrats controlling both houses of Congress, GOP-led efforts to probe the lab leak theory have lost momentum.
But if Republicans can take leadership positions on committees like Energy and Commerce and Oversight and Reform, they will be given sweeping subpoena powers that would force government health officials to comply with an investigation.
MP Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who is poised to step up to chair the Energy and Trade Committee, said over the summer: “There are so many questions that need to be answered about the government’s response to Covid-19.
“How the pandemic started is probably the most important public health question to answer,” she said.
Obtaining that subpoena would give Republicans the green light to coerce testimony and obtain documents, likely to lead to violent political showdowns at congressional hearings and behind-the-scenes partisan squabbles.
The debate surrounding the origins of Covid has been ongoing since the virus first wreaked havoc in early 2020.
The theory that the virus was transmitted from animals to humans was the dominant one at the time, but the laboratory leak theory has gained considerable traction.
Proponents of the laboratory leak theory – including ex-President Donald Trump – were initially dismissed as conspiracy theorists or denounced as xenophobia.
Republicans have embraced the argument that the coronavirus escaped from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, where scientists study pathogens with pandemic potential, and that the government there acted to cover it up.
Many GOP members also allege that the Biden administration’s top health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci and former NIH director Francis Collins, acted in secret to quash dissenting voices in the scientific community that supported the lab leak theory.
Members of the Republican House of Representatives are preparing to nominate Dr. Subpoenaing Fauci, despite his resignation in August, to testify before committees about his moves to promote the theory that Covid-19 originated in animal reservoirs and could mutate so it could then become humans.
Rep Comer already has his focus on Dr. Fauci and senior Biden administration officials trained.
He said in August, “The American people have many questions for Dr. Fauci and we are committed to getting answers.”
“For the past two years, Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee have elected Dr. Fauci requested to testify before the committee and provide documents and information related to our investigation into the origins of COVID.
“The Democrats have Dr. Fauci, however, shielded himself from any significant oversight from Congress and refused to invite him to appear before the committee. The origin of COVID-19 — a virus with a death toll that surpassed one million Americans and then six million worldwide — is a question that needs to be answered,” added Rep Comer.
The Senate GOP, meanwhile, is also keen to investigate the origins of Covid-19, but whether that will be possible remains to be seen.
While Republicans are heavily favored to win the House of Representatives, it remains a dead heat in the Senate. Should the GOP successfully take over the upper chamber, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, a staunch conservative, would become chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
Sen Paul has repeatedly been at odds with Dr. Fauci collided. He said in a campaign stop earlier this month, “It’s not about Fauci going to jail, although that would probably be appropriate.”
“I promise you that I will read all of Dr. Fauci,” Sen Paul said.
Senate Republicans have conducted their own investigations into the precise origins of the pandemic. The party released a report last week that concluded the most likely scenario was that “the COVID-19 pandemic was most likely the result of a research-related incident.”
The Blockbuster report, which drew on hundreds of public research, said: “Nearly three years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, crucial evidence was presented that would prove that the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and the resulting COVID -19 pandemic was caused by a natural zoonotic spillover missing.’
The report’s authors acknowledged that crucial information is still missing on how the pandemic really came about – with no direct evidence of natural or synthetic origins.