‘Lab leak’ notion is again in the news because to the COVID origin report

Republicans are calling for more probes in response to a new federal assessment that claims a lab leak was likely the cause of COVID-19, despite the fact that scientists and the intelligence community agree the problem is still far from being addressed.

Republicans proclaimed victory following a Wall Street Journal article that was published over the weekend about an Energy Department finding that COVID-19 most likely originated from a lab leak in China.

On Monday, the Republican National Committee tweeted, “Senator Tom Cotton deserves an apology.”

Without providing any proof, Cotton (R-Ark.) said in February 2020 that the virus may have come from a Chinese biochemical facility, however he later recanted his claim that the virus was a weapon.

The fact that I was right doesn’t matter. Holding the Chinese Communist Party responsible will ensure that this doesn’t happen again, Cotton tweeted.

The request to declassify intelligence data on the most likely cause of the COVID-19 epidemic was echoed by other Senate Republicans after Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) made the announcement on Sunday.

The White House spent the most of Monday downplaying the story and stressing that intelligence services have not yet discovered any concrete proof on whether the virus originated in a lab or the natural world.

In a press briefing, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said, “There hasn’t been a conclusive finding, so it’s impossible for me to say, nor do I feel like I should have to justify press reporting about a possible preliminary signal here.”

“Facts are what the president wants. He wants the entire administration to go get those details. We’re working toward it, but we’re still not there, Kirby added.

But, House Republicans are reviving an investigation into the virus’s origins that was started last year when they were in the minority.

Their demands for information and testimony from current and former Biden health officials, including Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have been made in letters sent to the panel looking into the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Department of Energy, the Department of State, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), which has also determined that a lab leak most likely caused the epidemic, were also added to the investigation on Monday by House Republicans.

The new study is expected to come under scrutiny by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Epidemic at its hearing on Tuesday to review the administration’s COVID policy choices.

The conclusion that the virus came from a Chinese facility, however, has divided the U.S. intelligence community, and the DOE’s latest study was apparently produced with “low confidence.”

The origins of the epidemic have also become a third rail due to politics and conspiracy theories, with some confusing the likelihood of a lab leak with ideas of a Chinese biological weapon, which intelligence agencies have all dismissed.

Although many scientists believe there are important issues concerning the virus’s origins and the U.S. reaction, most of the work has been focused on gaining political advantage.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) tweeted on Sunday, “The left spent the previous 2yrs attempting to conceal the truth & cover up for Communist China, but the facts are incontrovertible.” “The wicked CPC. Millions were slaughtered by its infection, and Xi would do anything to eliminate the United States. It’s time to hold this wicked government responsible.

Analysts worry that the chance of learning the truth is being diminished by the issue’s continuing politicization and China’s resistance to cooperating.

The omnibus financing package from the previous year had a bipartisan pandemic response measure, but it was missing a clause that would have created an independent commission to look at the government’s reaction to the epidemic and the virus’s origins.

The conflicting opinions regarding where COVID originated inside the agency are significantly exacerbated by the most recent DOE review.

According to Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, “when somebody puts anything up with low confidence, it tells you right there that you know, the amount of evidence is really restricted, if anything at all.”

Osterholm stated that although not being shocked by the politics, he believes it is more beneficial to look forward to the next epidemic than it is to look back.

“Do you believe that anyone’s opinion would alter if a government agency said we now have low confidence judgments that this was a spillover event?” said Osterholm. Is it a wonder that what may be a scientific data point is distorted and misrepresented to suit the political agenda of those who wish to use it? Science is no longer the focus of this. The topic is political science.

In a Monday interview with The Boston Globe, Fauci stated that although he continues to believe that there is more evidence in favor of a natural genesis, neither scenario should be ruled out.

“I’m not entirely clear of the information used to support the Department of Energy’s assertion. But again, the basic message is that we need to have an open mind until one absolutely pins down what the origin is, said Fauci. It would be wonderful to examine those statistics in order to assess the veracity of that.