U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) recently voiced support for World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who called for further investigations by scientific experts into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Everyone in the global community should be raising the alarm just like he is about the Chinese authorities preventing full access to biological and scientific data, including information connected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” said Rep. McMorris Rodgers, Republican Leader of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over public health.
The WHO director on March 30 said in a press conference that “all hypotheses remain on the table” regarding further investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. He was joined by 14 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, which expressed last week “shared concerns” in a joint statement about the WHO’s original study. The WHO concluded it was “extremely unlikely” the pandemic originated from a Chinese laboratory leak and said it was possible that transmission of the virus started with animals and then jumped to humans.
“It’s long overdue for the WHO to finally stand up to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and it must continue to do so,” Rep. McMorris Rodgers said in an April 1 statement.
The WHO, she noted, has made progress in being more receptive to the science since January 2020, when it reiterated China’s claim there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus causing the pandemic.
“We must get to the bottom of the origins of this pandemic and any role the CCP played in allowing this pandemic to wreak havoc on the world,” the congresswoman said, adding that she fully supports an independent, scientific investigation into how this pandemic started.
Rep. McMorris Rodgers said she has joined colleagues U.S. Reps. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) and Brett Guthrie (R-KY) to urge the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support and assist a transparent, independent and science-based investigation. “It’s of paramount importance to prevent a future pandemic and to enhance America’s biosecurity,” she said.
The congresswoman also joined her GOP colleagues in requesting that NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins advance a complete, independent scientific investigation into the origins of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“Over a year has passed since the deadly virus reached our shores and yet, the origin of the virus has yet to be determined,” the three members wrote in a March 18 letter sent to Dr. Collins. “An independent, expert investigation of the origin of COVID-19 is of paramount importance to public health and biosecurity.”