U.S. Congress claimed laboratory origin of coronavirus and blamed China

U.S. congressmen found out that the coronavirus is most likely to be of laboratory origin. This became known on December 2 from the report of U.S. congressmen on the results of a two-year investigation.

Thus, according to the documents, the weight of evidence increasingly supports the hypothesis of a virus leak from the laboratory, resulting from an accident related to this very laboratory or research conducted in it.

"COVID-19 is most likely to have originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China," the report notes.

The lawmakers present five arguments to support their point of view, emphasizing that the virus has biological traits not previously seen in nature. They argue that all COVID-19 cases have essentially arisen from a single entry into the human body, while there have been multiple transmissions of the virus in the past, during other pandemics.

In addition, the congressmen pointed out that Wuhan is home to one of the major research laboratories that deals with SARS viruses and also has a history of operating with low levels of biosecurity (no mandatory permanent labeling and fewer protective equipment), according to the lawmakers.

In summary, in the enumerated findings, the congressmen noted that the Chinese government, as well as agencies within the U.S. government and some members of the international community, sought to conceal the facts regarding the origin of the coronavirus that caused the pandemic.

In early March 2023, it was reported that Republicans discovered emails in the House of Representatives revealing the deception of former U.S. Chief Infectious Disease Surgeon General Anthony Fauci about the nature of the coronavirus. It was noted that Fauci in February 2020 ordered a scientific article to refute the theory about the leak of the virus from the laboratory in Wuhan, China. To do so, the authors of the article distorted the available evidence.

Prior to that, on May 20, 2021, the U.S. House Intelligence Committee reported "circumstantial evidence" that a new type of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In turn, China called such a theory a slander and conspiracy.

Later, in October 2022, a group of German scientists said they had found evidence of the coronavirus's laboratory origin. According to their study, it is 99.9% an artificial copy of a natural virus.

An outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was first recorded in December 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Within a few months, the disease spread to more than 210 countries around the world. On March 11, the WHO declared a coronavirus pandemic. It was speculated that the coronavirus began spreading from bats sold in one of the city's markets. Pangolins were also cited as the primary source of infection. At that time, a number of specialists proposed theories about the laboratory origin of the infection, but at that time, this version did not find a positive response among scientists.