U.S. Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, on Feb. 13 formally launched a congressional investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the United States government’s responses to it.
“The American people deserve real answers after years of suffering through the coronavirus pandemic and related government policies,” Rep. Wenstrup said on Wednesday. “This investigation must begin with where and how this virus came about so that we can attempt to predict, prepare for, or preferably prevent a pandemic from happening again.”
The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic is authorized to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, including but not limited to the federal government’s funding of “gain-of function research” and “executive branch policies, deliberations, decisions, activities, and internal and external communications related to the coronavirus pandemic” under House Resolution 5.
At the same time, the U.S. House Oversight and Accountability Committee, which is chaired by U.S. Rep. James Comer (R-KY), also is authorized to investigate “any matter” at “any time” pursuant to House Rule X. As such, Rep. Comer joined Rep. Wenstrup to lead eight other Republicans, including U.S. Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) and John Joyce (R-PA), in initiating the investigation.
“Understanding the origins of COVID-19 is essential to providing accountability and protecting Americans in the future,” said Rep. Comer. “We will continue to follow the facts to determine what could have been done differently to better protect Americans from this virus and hold U.S. government officials that took part in any sort of cover-up accountable.”
Rep. Comer also said that evidence continues to mount pointing to the virus leaking from an unsecured lab in Wuhan, China, which received thousands of U.S. taxpayer dollars funneled by the EcoHealth Alliance.
To jump-start the investigation, Rep. Wenstrup and his colleagues sent five letters seeking a plethora of information from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra; Dr. Francis Collins, Acting Science Advisor to the President; Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines; Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance; and Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.
The Feb. 13 letters “renew requests” the select subcommittee members made during the previous Congress on Dec. 13, 2022, seeking the same documents, communications, activities, information, and testimony, which they want “produced as soon as possible but no later than Feb. 20,” they wrote in each letter.
“Government scientists and government-funded researchers have so far been less-than-forthcoming in their knowledge and actions, including work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology and potential pandemic pathogens,” said Rep. Wenstrup. “We can’t accept more years of stonewalling; the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic is committed to conducting a proper investigation that the American people have demanded.”