A US congressional committee investigating the covid-19 pandemic released its report on Monday, in which it estimates that “the most plausible” explanation for its origin is that the virus leaked from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
The question of the origin of the pandemic – that is, whether it was due to the transmission of the virus from animal to human or whether it leaked from a laboratory – has for years taken on geopolitical overtones in the US, against the background of the growing rivalry with China.
Re-elected US president Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that the virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory, which Beijing denies.
The US Intelligence had stated in its report in June 2023 that there is no evidence that covid-19 was created in a laboratory in China.
The subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic was created in February 2023, when Republicans held the majority in the House of Representatives.
After two years of research, 38 depositions and interviews, and 25 hearings, the commission compiled a report of more than 500 pages.
“This work will help the US and the world predict the next pandemic, prepare for it, protect us, and hopefully prevent it,” said committee chairman Republican congressman and podiatrist Brad Wenstrap.
Democratic and Republican members of the committee agreed on many issues, most notably the fact that “the possibility that covid-19 is due to an accident in a laboratory or in (scientific) research is not a conspiracy theory.”
To support their view, the American congressmen cited five reasons, among them the fact that “the virus has biological characteristics that do not occur in nature.”
Beijing has criticized the survey’s conclusions, saying it has “no credibility” and accusing Washington of exploiting the pandemic for “political maneuvers”.
“The scientific conclusion (..) of the joint team of experts of China and the World Health Organization (…) is that the leakage from a laboratory is extremely unlikely“said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian.
“In the absence of any substantial evidence, the self-proclaimed US report fabricated its basic conclusions, slandered China” and “presented false evidence,” he added.
Almost five years after its appearance, the international scientific community has still not been able to identify with certainty the origin of covid-19.
Research published in September in the scientific journal Cell presented evidence that supports the hypothesis of transmission of the virus to humans from infected animals that were present in a Wuhan market in 2019.
With more than 1.1 million dead, the US is by far the country most affected by the pandemic.
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