House GOP Launches Probe into COVID Origins

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Facts

• Republicans on the US House Oversight Committee and Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, fulfilling a promise they made before taking the majority in the 2022 midterm elections, have begun an investigation into the origins of COVID.¹
• Subcommittee chairman Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said the probe must establish 'where and how' COVID emerged so Congress can 'predict, prepare or prevent it from happening again.' The committees have requested documents and testimony from Biden admin. officials such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and Health Secretary Xavier Beccera.¹
• Fauci, who left the federal government in December 2022, was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for nearly 40 years, also serving as Biden’s top medical adviser beginning in January 2021.²
• The 12-member subcommittee’s task is to uncover the origins of the pandemic, what role, if any, federal funding played, and whether gain-of-function research — research that enhances a virus’s ability to infect to predict pandemics and develop cures — played a part in COVID's emergence and spread.³
• In addition to Fauci, the committee is seeking testimony from EcoHealth Alliance Pres. Peter Daszak and reached out to 40 other officials. Phone records, calendars, and other correspondence between NIAID and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have also been requested.⁴
• As the origins of the virus have become highly politicized, the lawmakers are also hoping to receive a classified briefing from intelligence and law enforcement agencies.³

Sources: ¹Associated Press, ²NBC, ³The hill and ⁴Daily Mail.

Narratives

• Republican narrative, as provided by FOX News. Fauci, and others who received requests to testify before the committees, have avoided facing the music long enough. They successfully ignored a Dec. 13, 2022 request, but now that Republicans are in charge it’s time to follow up on previous reports of tax dollars funding the Wuhan lab and the possibility that COVID was either an accidental lab leak or even a PRC bioweapon. If those asked to speak have information to the contrary, they are welcome to and should present it to Congress.
• Democratic narrative, as provided by MSNBC. Any legitimate investigation into the origins of and response to the COVID pandemic has to start with a committee of astute inquisitors. What the GOP has provided, however, is a committee full of conspiracy theorists and unserious radicals that are unlikely to conduct this probe without politicizing it. If those investigating are the same people pushing dangerous medical disinformation, the committee's findings will end up as just another polarizing kangaroo court for one side of the aisle.