{"id":1718705,"date":"2022-10-31T15:18:04","date_gmt":"2022-10-31T19:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1718705"},"modified":"2022-10-31T15:18:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T19:18:32","slug":"senate-report-says-covid-more-likely-than-not-came-from-lab-leak-after-medias-conspiracy-theory-smear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senate-report-says-covid-more-likely-than-not-came-from-lab-leak-after-medias-conspiracy-theory-smear\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Report Says Covid \u2018More Likely Than Not\u2019 Came From Lab Leak, After Media\u2019s \u2018Conspiracy Theory\u2019 Smear"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsenate-report-says-covid-more-likely-than-not-came-from-lab-leak-after-medias-conspiracy-theory-smear%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1718705&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A newly released U.S. Senate interim report reaffirms suspicions that the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus likely came as a result of a \u201cresearch-related incident\u201d at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China.<\/p>\n<p>Published by the minority oversight staff of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.help.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/report_an_analysis_of_the_origins_of_covid-19_102722.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a> analyzes the plausibility of two main theories surrounding the origins of Covid-19: that the outbreak of the virus resulted from either a \u201cnatural zoonotic spillover\u201d or a \u201cresearch-related incident.\u201d The investigation was spearheaded by ranking HELP Committee member and North Carolina GOP Sen. Richard Burr, who said in the foreword of the report that the \u201cultimate goal\u201d of the inquiry \u201cis to provide a clearer picture of what we know, so far, about the origins of SARS-CoV-2 so that we can continue to work together to be better prepared to respond to future public health threats.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addressing the natural spillover theory, the document\u2019s authors note that while the idea that Covid came about naturally in animals and spread to humans is a \u201cplausible explanation\u201d for how the pandemic started, it lacks key scientific evidence to suggest that such an event occurred.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe intermediate host species for SARS-CoV-2, if one exists, remains unidentified,\u201d the report reads. \u201cBy comparison, within six months of the first known human case of SARS, public health officials in China found SARS infections in palm civets and raccoon dogs in live animal markets in Guangdong Province.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another fact undercutting the theory that the virus naturally occurred, the analysis notes, is that the genomes of \u201cearly COVID-19 cases from the first months of the pandemic\u201d lack any genetic evidence that could indicate the virus previously circulated in \u201canimal species other than humans.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>In their analysis of the lab leak theory, the report\u2019s authors document the Wuhan Institute of Virology\u2019s years of coronavirus experimentation leading up to 2020, as well as numerous safety-related failures and events throughout 2019 that raise concerns about the biosecurity of the institution\u2019s research facilities. Moreover, the Senate release highlights the anomalies in epidemiology with respect to Covid-19, such as the fact that the virus spilled over into humans \u201conly in Wuhan\u201d and had \u201clow initial genetic diversity,\u201d which represents \u201ca break with the precedent of recent zoonotic spillovers of respiratory viruses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBased on the analysis of the publicly available information, it appears reasonable to conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic was, more likely than not, the result of a research-related incident,\u201d the report concludes. \u201cNew information, made publicly available and independently verifiable, could change this assessment. However, the hypothesis of a natural zoonotic origin no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt, or the presumption of accuracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The release of the Senate report comes on the heels of a <a href=\"https:\/\/republicans-intelligence.house.gov\/uploadedfiles\/covid-19_and_the_wuhan_institute_of_virology_19_may_2021.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">communique<\/a> released by House Republicans on the Intelligence Committee last year, which highlighted China\u2019s documented history of lab leaks and gain of function research that took place at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In both reports, investigators noted that efforts by China\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;It appears reasonable to conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic was, more likely than not, the result of a research-related incident,&#8217; the report concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":1718708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1718705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1718705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1718708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1718705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1718705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1718705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}