Comment Senate Republican staffers have produced a report outlining their argument that the “most likely” origin of the coronavirus The pandemic was some kind of “research-related incident” in China, citing safety gaps in laboratories there and claiming there are evidentiary gaps in published scientific research suggesting a natural origin from animals sold in a market in Wuhan. The report, while not an official scientific paper, represents a possible template for a future investigative hearing in Congress if Republicans gain control of the House or the Senate—or both—after the midterm elections. The so-called “lab leak” theory is a talking point for some Republican office-seekers, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has promised hearings if his party wins the Senate. The 35-page “interim” report released Thursday comes from Sen. Richard Burr (RN.C.) and Republican staffers on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which investigated the origins of the virus. Although the report favors a “laboratory leak” origin, it does not rule out a market origin. The report also does not accept the most provocative arguments about how SARS-CoV-2 entered the human population. There is no claim that the virus was engineered as a biological weapon, for example. Nor does it mention Anthony S. Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who has been a frequent target of Paul and other lab leak advocates because his institute helped fund virus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. For those still trying to fight Covid, isolation is worse than ever The report’s conclusions differ significantly from those of two studies published in the journal Science this summer, which made the case for the Huanan seafood market as the epicenter of the outbreak. A study found a geographic bull’s eye in the market among the first cases of the disease called covid-19. The other study presented an analysis of two early strains of the virus suggesting that there were two and perhaps many more distinct spreaders of the virus from animals sold on the market. Scientists favoring the origin of the market do not know which animals were infected or where they came from. No animals in the market were tested before the market was closed and cleaned. “Crucial corroborative evidence for a natural spread of zoonotic agents is lacking. “While the absence of evidence is not proof in itself, the lack of corroborating evidence of zoonotic spillover or spillover, three years after the pandemic, is extremely troubling,” the new GOP report says. Michael Worobey, a professor at the University of Arizona who co-authored both studies published in Science, said the new GOP report “gets the science completely wrong.” “As the saying goes, when you mix science and politics, you get politics.” he said. Worobey said the hypothesis of some sort of laboratory incident is worth investigating, and he was among the scientists who wrote a letter in Science in May 2021 arguing that all possible origins should be investigated. But he said his and other scientists’ research points to a market origin. He said he is willing to testify if Republicans call for hearings. David Relman, a professor of medicine at Stanford University who was one of the experts interviewed by the commission’s staff, praised the report as a credible effort to gather a wealth of information, including safety issues in Chinese laboratories. “I think it’s a sober and fair treatment of what is largely a body of circumstantial evidence supporting both cases,” Relman said. “But it particularly raises questions about the assumption that a natural diffusion must have been the cause.” Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan and co-author of one of the scientific papers, dismissed the new GOP report as a “speculative handshake” and views it as a partisan document. “This is in the service of trying to create something that would be politically beneficial for a party,” he said. “It’s to essentially make it easier to present trials for human adversaries, which unfortunately includes scientists.” The report comes in the final days of an election cycle where many Republicans — including Paul, who sits on the health panel — have accused Fauci of withholding information about the virus’ origins. “We owe it to the Americans who have lost their lives to the virus, to their families and to those still struggling with the social and economic consequences of the pandemic, to continue to investigate the origins of the coronavirus,” said Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan. ) in a statement Thursday, calling on Fauci to “release all texts, emails, communications and records in full and without redactions.” Burr, who is retiring this year, has taken a more conciliatory approach to Fauci, praising the longtime government scientist’s work at a hearing last month and attempting to focus the report on broader biosecurity issues. While it concludes that an incident related to the investigation is the “most likely” origin of the outbreak, the new report is far from declaring it a closed case. Burr’s introductory note is ambiguous. “This conclusion is not intended to be prescriptive,” the report’s main text says. “The lack of transparency from government and public health officials in [People’s Republic of China] in relation to the origin of SARS-CoV-2 prevents reaching a more definitive conclusion. Should additional information become public and subject to independent verification, it is possible that these conclusions may be subject to review and reconsideration.” The committee’s report was led by Robert Kadlec, an adviser to Burr who served as assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services during the Trump administration. Some health officials, including Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the Trump administration, have reiterated their belief that a lab leak in China is the most likely cause of the pandemic. “I think you will see that the preponderance of the evidence for the origin of covid-19 is that it did not come from a natural origin. That’s my view,” Redfield told a House committee investigating the government’s response to the coronavirus in March. In a statement Thursday, the committee’s top Democrat reiterated that a separate investigation into the origin of the virus is ongoing. “[I]In 2021, I announced a bipartisan oversight effort with Senator Burr on the origin of this virus. The HELP Committee continues bipartisan work on this oversight report,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Health Committee.
