It is highly likely the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic could have been prevented, concludes an interim report released on Monday by U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Michael McCaul (R-TX).
There are still many unanswered questions as to the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and the root of the global pandemic, according to the June 12 report, The Origins of the Covid-19 Global Pandemic, Including the Roles of the Chinese Communist Party and the World Health Organization, a House Foreign Affairs Committee Minority Staff Interim Report.
Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the United States and likeminded World Health Organization (WHO) member states to ensure the accountability and reforms necessary to prevent the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) malfeasance from giving rise to a third pandemic during the 21st century, the report concludes.
“After months of investigating, it’s become crystal clear the Chinese Communist Party’s cover-up of the coronavirus, especially in the early days of the outbreak, played a significant role in turning what could have been a local epidemic into a global pandemic,” Rep. McCaul said on Monday.
Unfortunately, under the leadership of WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the organization worsened the problem by ignoring warnings about the severity of the virus, while also “parroting the CCP’s propaganda without independently confirming their claims,” said Rep. McCaul.
“This was a failure of monumental proportions and it is imperative that we uncover the truth so we can set up future safeguards to prevent this from happening yet again,” he added.
The interim report includes sections on how COVID-19 spread throughout China, how it spread to other countries, and why international regulations put into place to address challenges identified as a result of the CCP’s handling of the 2003 SARS epidemic were not followed.
The interim report, which will be submitted to the China Task Force and others as a part of the ongoing investigation, also provides three recommendations “aimed at supporting accountability, transparency and reforms to the systems and processes that enabled the CCP’s cover-up and the WHO’s failures: new leadership at the WHO; that the United States engage in an international investigation with like-minded WHO member states regarding the early stages of COVID-19; and concrete reforms to the International Health Regulations.”