A House panel on Wednesday adopted its massive final report on the coronavirus and its origins, putting its final stamp on the fallout from the pathogen that upended society in 2020 and 2021.
The committee voted by voice to adopt the report in a short markup on Capitol Hill.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, after a two-year investigation, concluded the coronavirus “most likely” leaked from a Chinese lab where researchers were intentionally manipulating the virus.
It said the U.S. National Institutes of Health “notionally” supported the work at the lab in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the outbreak began.
The report also faulted Dr. Anthony Fauci and other government officials for discrediting the lab-leak theory and suggesting that the virus originated in nature.
“This report is the culmination of years of work and dedication,” said Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup, Ohio Republican. “The select subcommittee held bad actors accountable, drove actual change in our public health agencies, and provided a road map for what to and what not to do.”
The first U.S. case was reported Jan. 20, 2020. President Trump declared a national emergency on March 13, and three days later launched his 15 days to slow the spread.
That turned into lockdowns that shut schools and offices for months. It also spawned mask mandates and a rush to develop treatments and vaccines. That then spawned a new layer of vaccine mandates, all of which proved deeply divisive.
Mr. Wenstrup and his investigators issued a series of recommendations. It urged the U.S. government to continue its investigation into the pandemic’s origins to tighten its regulation of risky virus work.
It says the government should bolster its national stockpile of medical supplies and pandemic-response teams and ensure that future guidance, like social distancing and mask mandates, is based on clear findings and not hypotheses.
It also said the government should not encourage media platforms to censor viewpoints, and that doctors should not be demonized for recommending off-label uses of treatments.
Democrats earlier this week pushed back on aspects of the GOP-driven report, saying it “failed” to truly reveal the origins of COVID-19 and “fueled extreme narratives.”
“We are leaving with different impressions of what we did or did not find,” Rep. Raul Ruiz, California Democrat, said Wednesday.
• Stephen Dinan contributed to this story.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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