{"id":1971965,"date":"2023-07-13T13:21:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-13T17:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/virologists-defend-paper-on-origins-of-covid-19-at-contentious-house-hearing\/"},"modified":"2023-07-13T13:24:06","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T17:24:06","slug":"virologists-defend-paper-on-origins-of-covid-19-at-contentious-house-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/virologists-defend-paper-on-origins-of-covid-19-at-contentious-house-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Virologists stand by COVID-19 origins paper at heated hearing."},"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\">18<\/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%2Fvirologists-defend-paper-on-origins-of-covid-19-at-contentious-house-hearing%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=1971965&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--><div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0713\/0e1bd9aa-fd08-44ab-bddd-01c716067e9b\/audio.mp3?length=5802669&#038;duration=484\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>A 2020 paper studying the early origins of the COVID-19 outbreak was the subject of an often contentious July 11 House hearing investigating the government\u2019s response to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible,\u201d the paper states.<\/p>\n<p>Those words, written by five virologists in the 2020 paper, prompted many officials to repeatedly dismiss the possibility that the pandemic started in a lab.<\/p>\n<p>Two of the paper\u2019s authors, Kristian Andersen and Robert Garry Jr., testified at the hearing. House Republicans contend that the paper was part of a cover-up by former National Institutes of Health figures Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), chair of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, is also a doctor of podiatric medicine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not an attack on science. It\u2019s not an attack on peer review,\u201d Dr. Wenstrup said in his opening statement at the hearing. \u201cWe are examining whether scientific integrity was disregarded in favor of political expediency, maybe to conceal or diminish the government\u2019s relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology or perhaps its funding of risky gain-of-function coronavirus research.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5220772\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/04\/25\/id5220772-rep-wenstrup-1200x800.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a><br \/>\n\t\tRep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) in Washington on Aug. 12, 2022. (Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<h2>Proximal Origin<\/h2>\n<p>A report released by House Republicans in the select subcommittee noted that the paper, \u201cThe Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,\u201d appeared on Feb. 16, 2020. A paper with the same title was published in Nature Medicine on March 17, 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Referred to simply as \u201cProximal Origin\u201d in the committee report and at the hearing, the paper concluded that COVID-19 \u201cis not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus\u201d and that \u201cwe do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible,\u201d according to the committee report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProximal Origin\u201d has been accessed 5.84 million times and has received the fifth most attention of any paper ever tracked, the committee report stated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is one of the single most impactful and influential scientific papers in history, and it expressed conclusions that were not based on sound science nor in fact, but instead on assumptions. The question is why,\u201d the report continued.<\/p>\n<p>The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic has investigated the origins of COVID-19 since April 2023.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fbi-worked-with-compromised-ukrainian-intel-agency-to-censor-americans-report-says\/\" title=\"FBI collaborated with 'compromised' Ukrainian intel agency to censor Americans, per report.\">committee report showed<\/a> that messages between several virologists discussed the possibility that parts of the virus appeared to be man-made. That position changed, the committee report alleged, after a Feb. 1, 2020, conference call between virologists and Drs. Fauci and Collins.<\/p>\n<p>On Jan. 31, 2020, Dr. Fauci \u201csuggested\u201d that Mr. Andersen draft a paper regarding a possible lab leak of COVID-19, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>During a Feb. 1, 2020, conference call that included Dr. Fauci, Dr. Collins, Dr. Lawrence Tabak, and several virologists, Dr. Fauci again suggested writing a paper about a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senate-unanimously-passes-amendment-banning-gain-of-function-research-in-china-but-theres-a-huge-catch\/\" title=\"Senate Unanimously Passes Amendment Banning Gain Of Function Research In China, But There\u2019s A Huge Catch\">potential lab leak<\/a>, the report explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter publication, Proximal Origin was used to downplay the lab leak hypothesis and call those who believe it may be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/they-are-the-true-conspiracy-theorists-cawthorn-slams-russia-rumors\/\" title=\"\u2018They Are The True Conspiracy Theorists\u2019: Cawthorn Slams Russia Rumors\">true conspiracy theorists<\/a>,\u201d the committee report continued.<\/p>\n<h2>Allegations Are \u2018Absurd and False\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Drs. Fauci and Collins and the virologists have said the allegations are not true and called them politically motivated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet me categorically say that these allegations are absurd and false,\u201d Mr. Andersen said during testimony at the hearing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConclusions stated in Proximal Origin were based on scientific data and analyses by a team of international scientists with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/virologists-defend-paper-on-origins-of-covid-19-at-contentious-house-hearing\/\" title=\"Virologists stand by COVID-19 origins paper at heated hearing.\">extensive track records<\/a> in studying virus emergence and evolution. None of this work was influenced by Dr. Fauci,\u201d added Mr. Andersen, a professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research in California.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Garry, a professor at the Tulane University School of Medicine, testified that \u201cthe evidence remains clear: SARS-CoV-2 emerged via the wildlife trade.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Wuhan Institute of Virology\u2019s two main campuses \u201care considered the prime suspects for a lab origin of SARS-CoV-2 because they are the sites of the most advanced research programs on coronaviruses in the city,\u201d Mr. Garry said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, there<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A controversial House hearing on July 11 focused on a 2020 paper investigating the COVID-19 outbreak&#8217;s early origins. The paper, authored by five virologists, stated that a laboratory-based scenario was implausible. The government&#8217;s response to the pandemic was under scrutiny during the hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":492,"featured_media":1971966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1971965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"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\/1971965","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\/492"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1971965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1971966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1971965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1971965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1971965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}