WASHINGTON—The Covid-19 pandemic that has killed millions worldwide “was most likely the result of a research-related incident” in China, and not natural transmission of a virus from animal to human, a new report by Republicans on the Senate health committee concludes.
The study cites details about the early spread of the SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes Covid; the fact that no animal host has been identified nearly three years into the pandemic; and troubled biosafety procedures at labs in the Chinese city of Wuhan to buttress its conclusion.
The 35-page report by Republican committee staff acknowledges that definitive conclusions about the pandemic’s origins are impossible without more evidence. But, it says: “The hypothesis of a natural zoonotic origin no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt, or the presumption of accuracy.”
The report is largely based on information already publicly available but is likely to bolster calls in Washington for further investigations into the origins of the virus. Republicans have vowed to launch more aggressive Covid-19 probes if they regain control of one or both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections.
Previous zoonotic disease outbreaks—in which a pathogen jumps from animals to man—have occurred in multiple locations as a virus circulates in animal populations, while the Covid virus is known to have emerged only in Wuhan, home to laboratories conducting research on coronaviruses, the report notes. In addition, it says, no animal has been identified as infected with the virus before the December 2019 pandemic outbreak.
Whether Covid resulted from natural transmission or a lab accident has been the topic of intense, and at times vitriolic, scientific and public debate. China has repeatedly denied a lab leak was involved, and suggested a U.S. lab may have been the virus’s origin.
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Subscribe A U.S. intelligence report released last year failed to solve the question, saying only that the virus didn’t show signs of deliberate genetic engineering. Discerning its origins requires greater cooperation from Beijing, that report said.
Many scientists who study epidemics say a lab leak in Wuhan can’t be ruled out and needs further investigation, but that it is also possible the virus spread naturally to humans from animals in the wild, on a farm or in a market. Earlier this month, a review in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences concluded that “increasing scientific evidence” points to a zoonotic origin and spillover to humans via the wildlife trade.
The interim Senate staff report was released by Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.) the panel’s ranking Republican, who said it should guide the work of the World Health Organization and other bodies still investigating the virus’ origins. Mr. Burr felt that enough compelling, open source information has been gathered by staff to merit an interim report, a senior committee aide said.
The committee’s chairwoman, Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) said in a statement that the panel is continuing work on a bipartisan report on the issue.
The lab leak theory proposes that SARS-COV-2 was being studied or manipulated in one of several labs in Wuhan that conducted coronavirus research, and escaped via an infected worker.
The Wall Street Journal reported in May 2021 that, according to U.S. intelligence reporting, in November 2019 three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough to require hospital treatment, fueling calls for increased examination of the lab-leak theory.
The Republican staff report cites a proposal by the Wuhan Institute and a private group called EcoHealth Alliance to the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to find coronaviruses that easily bind to human cells or to manipulate viruses to achieve the same effect. The proposal, aimed at developing protection against such viruses, was never funded.
It also cites Chinese officials’ statements citing challenges with the Wuhan labs’ security protocols.
Write to Warren P. Strobel at Warren.Strobel@wsj.com
https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-most-likely-leaked-from-lab-in-china-senate-gop-report-says-11666905063
