Wenstrup defends lab-leak cover-up probe against Democratic criticism.
Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Defends Investigation into Lab Leak Theory
Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) defended his group’s investigation into the lab leak theory of origin regarding COVID-19 against Democratic accusations that the Republicans are generating a false story, saying the panel is obligated to follow through, even if the findings cause controversy.
“Unfortunately, I feel in some ways Democrats want to sweep under the rug a lot of things that happen and just move forward on ideas of the future, but one of the tenets of this subcommittee is to do investigations,” Wenstrup told the Washington Examiner in an exclusive interview regarding the origins of the virus. “It’s the Oversight Committee. That’s what we do.”
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Democrats on the committee issued a report earlier this month that said Republicans were attempting to “manufacture the narrative” of leadership at the National Institutes of Health intentionally suppressing scientific debate regarding the origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Wenstrup, however, told the Washington Examiner that “honesty is nonnegotiable,” even if it is inconvenient.
“As we’re looking for things, it’s not within a political bent. It’s from a scientific bent that we can hopefully [prepare] better in the future,” the chairman said.
The central facet of the subcommittee’s investigation into the coronavirus’s origins has been examining the drafting and publication of the scientific paper “The proximal origins of SARS-CoV-2,” which was published in Nature Medicine in March 2020.
The paper explicitly denied the plausibility of the virus originating in a lab. The paper has been accessed over 5.8 million times and has become the fifth-most influential academic paper on record, having been used by prominent government officials to suppress scientific debate.
The subcommittee subpoenaed the authors of the report, including Kristian Andersen and Robert Garry, on June 23, requesting all instant messages between the authors of the paper. The Republican report based upon the 8,000 pages of subpoenaed documents outlines the role of then-Director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, then-NIH Director Francis Collins, and then-NIH ethics director Lawrence Tabak in the drafting of the eventual publication of the paper.
Records indicate that Andersen had a private phone call with Fauci on Jan. 31, 2020, during which Andersen raised the possibility that the virus was engineered and included the possible involvement of Chinese research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
On Feb. 1, which Wenstrup told the Washington Examiner was “a date in [Pandemic] history,” the authors of the paper engaged in a conference call with Fauci, Collins, Tabak, and other scientists. After this conference call, instant messages between the authors of the report demonstrate that their research was directed toward the interests of the so-called “Bethesda Boys” at the NIH to suppress information regarding the possibility of a lab leak.
Although the authors agreed via instant message that they could not entirely rule out a lab leak hypothesis, they decided to deny any connection between SARS-CoV-2 and human experimentation in their paper because of “the s*** show that would happen if anyone seriously accused the Chinese of even accidental release.”
The subpoenaed instant messages also revealed that Nature Medicine initially rejected their article because the original language of the lab leak denial was not strong enough, prompting the authors to strengthen their conclusions in favor of a natural-origin hypothesis in the final published version of the paper.
The Democratic report on the information obtained from the research team largely relies on the testimony from Andersen, Garry, and the other authors, not referring to instant message communications between the authors that address the motivations of “The proximal origins of SARS-CoV-2″ or its problems in publication.
When asked about the accusations and content of the Democratic report, Wenstrup highlighted that the minority report referenced party affiliation of committee members 34 times compared to the majority report, which made no reference to political party groups.
‘We shouldn’t even have a political bent, and we’re just looking at what was done so that we as Americans in a bipartisan way can have a better public health plan and policy in place,” the congressman said.
One point of possible agreement between the Republicans and Democrats on the subcommittee is the questionable role of the World Health Organization in the drafting of ”The proximal origins of SARS-CoV-2″ and the cover-up of the lab leak.
Relying upon the testimony of the authors, the Democratic report outlines that Jeremy Farrar, the WHO’s chief medical scientist, was instrumental in leading and organizing the Feb. 1 conference call.
Wenstrup told the Washington Examiner that American scientists were denied spots on the WHO’s first investigation into the origins of COVID-19, which was primarily led by Chinese scientists. Shortly thereafter, Wenstrup received a letter from the Chinese ambassador saying the United States should accept the WHO-China study’s conclusion that the virus was not the result of a lab leak.
Although further investigating the role of the WHO is a priority for Wenstrup, he said the director-general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has been more cooperative with American investigations as new findings emerge.
“The WHO needs serious reforms, and it doesn’t operate with the best interests of the United States in mind,” Wenstrup said. “It seems in part controlled by [Chinese Communist Party] interests, so maybe Tedros is trying to go the other direction. And I would hope that would be the case.”
Despite partisan differences in the perceived importance of the COVID-19 origins investigation, Wenstrup said he remains optimistic about generating at least some cooperation.
Ranking member Raul Ruiz (D-CA) and Wenstrup have maintained cordiality throughout the process, even continuing to go to dinner as friends during this investigation, according to Wenstrup.
“Keep in mind that after Kevin McCarthy called me and asked me to take this role I was honored to get, I called Dr. Ruiz and said get on this subcommittee. I said, ‘Matter of fact, try to be ranking member,’ because we’ve worked so well together on health bills, and I consider us to be friends,” the Ohio Republican said.
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Regardless of the difficulties, Wenstrup told the Washington Examiner that he is committed to communicating the truth to the public.
“There’s big findings that we are getting all the time to the subcommittee,” he said, “and it seems like when we look under one rock, we find another rock. That’s our job. That’s what we want to do.”
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