Worthy Christian News > US News > US Select Committee Publishes Final Report on COVID-19 Pandemic, “Virus Likely Leaked from China Lab”

US Select Committee Publishes Final Report on COVID-19 Pandemic, “Virus Likely Leaked from China Lab”

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News)—The US Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic published a 520-page report on the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday (December 2). The report concluded that the virus was most likely “leaked” from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and reported bipartisan findings on the advancement and management of the crisis in the US.

Titled “After Action Review of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Lessons Learned and a Path Forward,” the report is available online. Introducing the report, Committee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (Republican) said it “will serve as a road map for Congress, the Executive Branch, and the private sector to prepare for and respond to future pandemics.”

Concerning the origins of the COVID-19 virus, the committee reported bipartisan consensus on the following five points:

1. The virus possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature.
2. Data shows that all COVID-19 cases stem from a single introduction into humans. This runs contrary to previous pandemics where there were multiple spillover events.
3. Wuhan is home to China’s foremost SARS research lab, which has a history of conducting gain-of-function research at inadequate biosafety levels.
4. Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) researchers were sick with a COVID-like virus in the fall of 2019, months before COVID-19 was discovered at the wet market.
5. By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced.

The committee further identified seven bipartisan findings on the progress of the pandemic and its management in the US as follows:

1. The U.S. National Institutes of Health-funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
2. The Chinese government, agencies within the U.S. Government, and some members of the international scientific community sought to cover up facts concerning the origins of the pandemic.
3. Operation Warp Speed was a tremendous success and a model to build upon in the future. The vaccines, which are now probably better characterized as therapeutics, undoubtedly saved millions of lives by diminishing the likelihood of severe disease and death.
4. Rampant fraud, waste, and abuse plagued the COVID-19 pandemic response.
5. Pandemic-era school closures will have an enduring impact on generations of America’s children and these closures were enabled by groups meant to serve those children.
6. The Constitution cannot be suspended in times of crisis and restrictions on freedoms sow distrust in public health.
7. The prescription cannot be worse than the disease, such as strict and overly broad lockdowns that led to predictable anguish and avoidable consequences.