WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Gallagher released the following statement on the Intelligence Community’s failed attempt to identify the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic:
“The unclassified summary of the Intelligence Community (IC) probe into the origins of COVID-19 could have been shortened to three simple words: we don’t know. This cannot be the end of the investigation and raises more questions than it answers. For example, if the IC is split between different hypotheses, and has low confidence that “SARS-CoV-2 probably was not genetically engineered; however, two agencies believe there was not sufficient evidence to make an assessment either way,” then what explains the April 30, 2020 Director of National Intelligence statement claiming “the Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified”? By failing to provide the methodology behind the 90-day review or explain whether any new information was collected in the last 90 days that was not available in April 2020, the summary obscures more than it illuminates.
“Additionally, the summary claims “China’s cooperation most likely would be needed to reach a conclusive assessment of the origins of COVID-19.” This is a cop-out. We do not need to wait for China’s cooperation to advance our understanding of the origin of the pandemic. The Biden Administration can immediately release the full report, explain in detail the methodology behind the report, declassify the underlying intelligence, release the names of the sick researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and provide all of the documents regarding collaborative research with the WIV that members of Congress have been demanding for months. Congress has a duty to conduct its own bipartisan investigation into the origins of the pandemic, armed with subpoena power to untangle the web connecting U.S. government funding to organizations like the EcoHealth Alliance to scientific journals like Lancet and Springer-Nature.
“What we cannot do is throw up our hands and shrug at more than 600,000 dead Americans, particularly since the IC probe confirms one thing: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “continues to hinder the global investigation, resist sharing information and blame other countries, including the United States.” It is long past time to hold the CCP accountable for its coverup of historic proportions. At a bare minimum, this means sanctions on CCP officials and on the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as the Chinese biotechnology sector, which is playing an increasingly important role in the CCP’s strategy to displace the United States. Shame on us if we let the CCP get away with this.”
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