In a recently released report, Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee make alarming (but not surprising) claims. The committee issued a minority staff report on Wednesday night stating that ‘COVID Origins May Have Been Tied’ to China’s Bioweapons Program. According to investigations, the COVID-19 virus originated in China’s biological weapons development program and subsequently “spilled over” into the general human population.
Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), a member of the committee, forcefully declared that “China has identified itself as an adversary to America.” He also noted that “We now have a report suggesting that China may be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and the economic destruction suffered by millions of more.”
The report warns that China’s efforts to cover up its potential role in the creation of the virus must be closely investigated. It further states that “if future evidence shows that the virus was either purposely released or negligently allowed to spread from a Chinese laboratory, it would constitute one of the greatest failures of the People’s Republic of China in modern history.”
The Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee are taking a serious stance on this issue. Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) declared that “It is essential that we get to the bottom of this and we are very much committed to doing that.” He also noted that “any effort by China to cover up or erase evidence of their involvement must be met with serious consequences.”
Much remains unknown as the House Intelligence Committee continues to explore the possible origins of the COVID-19 virus. What is certain is that the Republican members of the committee are taking this problem seriously and are trying to find out what happened.
Wednesday’s report released by House Republicans also alleges that its investigation “revealed serious shortcomings with both the classified and declassified versions of the Intelligence Community’s,” and states that the omissions “likely skewed the public’s understanding of key issues and deepened mistrust.”
“The Committee believes the IC downplayed important information relating to the possible links between COVID-19 and China’s bioweapons research based in part on input from outside experts,” the report states, adding that the intelligence community “refuses to be transparent with the Committee regarding which experts it relied on.”
As I said, the reports aren’t surprising but after two years of suspecting as much, it’s great to see politicians finally get off their hands and find out what happened.