5 revelations from the House COVID-19 report
Health officials falsely characterized lab leak theory as a 'conspiracy theory'
The hypothesis that COVID-19 originated from a lab leak is no longer considered a conspiracy theory, the Select Subcommittee report states, presenting the lab leak as the most plausible explanation for the virus' emergence.
"Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis," the report reads. "Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-19 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident."
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The committee notes the lack of transparency from both the Chinese government and international scientific bodies in investigating the virus' origins.
This marks a shift in the stance of U.S. lawmakers, who had previously dismissed this possibility, along with high-profile figures such as Fauci. In April 2020, Fauci called on China to crack down on its live animal markets or "wet markets" as a potential source of the virus.
Fauci was later accused of flip-flopping on his support for the "wet market" theory.
"During the early months of the pandemic, Dr. Fauci played a critical role in disparaging the lab-leak theory," the report adds.
"Dr. Fauci was also directly involved in the drafting and promotion of Proximal Origin, in which the authors concluded, 'we do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible.' Evidence suggests that Dr. Fauci 'prompted' the drafting of the Proximal Origin paper to 'disprove' the lab-leak theory."
"Since its publication on March 18, 2020, Proximal Origin has been accessed nearly 6 million times and has been cited countless times to discredit the possibility of a lab leak," the report added. "This paper was perhaps the most consequential tool used to paint the lab-leak theory as a conspiracy theory. Over the course of the Select Subcommittee's investigation, Dr. Fauci repeatedly tried to walk back his assertion that the lab-leak theory was a conspiracy."
When asked during a transcribed interview, the report said Fauci acknowledged that the lab leak "isn't inherently a conspiracy theory" and claimed that other people have "made conspiracy aspects from it."
