On May 26, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. ordered the United States Intelligence Community to prepare a report in 90 days on the origins of COVID-19. This was in part due to frustration with the lack of response from the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
The first report was published in late September 2020. Yet investigations continued. An addendum report was release in August 2021.
The evidence used to inform this addendum report was based upon open source information, including published academic work, official PRC publications (both public and confidential), interviews, emails, and social media postings.
Conclusion
It is the opinion of Committee Minority Staff, based on the preponderance of available information; the documented efforts to obfuscate, hide, and destroy evidence; and the lack of physical evidence to the contrary; that SARS-CoV-2 was accidentally released from a Wuhan Institute of Virology laboratory sometime prior to September 12, 2019.
The virus, which may be natural in origin or the result of genetic manipulation, was likely collected in the identified cave in Yunnan province, PRC, sometime between 2012 and 2015.
Its release was due to poor lab safety standards and practices, exacerbated by dangerous gain-of-function research being conducted at inadequate biosafety levels, including BSL-2.
The virus was then spread throughout central Wuhan, likely via the Wuhan Metro, in the weeks prior to the Military World Games. Those games became an international vector, spreading the virus to multiple continents around the world.
The Origins of COVID-19: Investigation of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Aug 2021
The addendum report provided a timeline of events, which paint a picture. You can access the whole report from the House Foreign Affairs Committee to read for yourself here.
Timeline
- April 2012: Six miners working in a copper mine located in a cave in Yunnan province of the PRC fall ill. Between the ages of 30 and 63, the workers presented to a hospital in Kunming with persistent coughs, fevers, head and chest pains, and breathing difficulties.” Three of the six died.
- Late 2012 – 2015: Researchers from the WIV collect samples from bats in the cave.
- 2015 – 2017: Shi Zheng-li, Ben Hu, Peter Daszak, and Linfa Wang jointly publish research on the isolation of novel coronaviruses. They conduct gain-of-function research, testing novel and genetically manipulated coronaviruses against mice and other animals expressing human immune systems. At times they collaborate with Ralph Baric.
- 2018 – 2019: Shi, Hu, and other researchers at the WIV infect transgenic mice and civets expressing human immune systems with unpublished novel and genetically modified coronaviruses.
- July 4, 2019: The PRC’s Ministry of Science and Technology orders a review of several grants, including grant no. 2013FY113500. This is the grant which funded the collection of hundreds of coronaviruses and bat samples from the cave in Yunnan province.
- July 16, 2019: The WIV publishes a tender requesting bids to conduct renovation on the hazardous waste treatment system at the Wuhan National Biosafety Lab (WNBL). The closing date was July 31st.
- Late August/Early September 2019: One or more researchers become accidently infected with SARS-CoV-2, which was either collected in the Yunnan cave, or the result of gain-of[1]function research at the WIV. They travel by metro in central Wuhan, spreading the virus.
- September 12, 2019: At 12:00am local time, the Wuhan University issues a statement announcing lab inspections. Between 2:00am and 3:00am, the WIV’s viral sequence and sample database is taken offline. At 7:09pm, the WIV publishes a tender requesting bids to provide security services at the WNBL.
- September – October 2019: Car traffic at hospitals surrounding the WIV Headquarters, as well as the shuttle stop for the WNBL, show a steady increase before hitting its highest levels in 2.5 years. Baidu search terms for COVID-19 related symptoms increase in a corresponding manner.
- Late October – Early November 2019: The international athletes return home, carrying SARS-CoV-2 around the world.
- November 21, 2019: A 4-year-old boy from Milan, Italy develops a cough. His samples will later test positive for COVID-19.
- November 27, 2019: Samples of wastewater are collected in Brazil that will later test positive for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA.
- December 1, 2019: The CCP’s first “official” case of COVID-19 become infected.
- Late 2019: Major General Chen Wei arrives in Wuhan, taking over the WNBL BSL-4 lab.
- Dec. 27, 2019: A Chinese genomic company reportedly sequenced most of the virus in Wuhan and results showed a similarity to SARS. Zhang Jixian, a doctor from Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, tells PRC health authorities that a novel disease affecting some 180 patients was caused by a new coronavirus.
- Dec. 29, 2019: Wuhan Municipal CDC organized an expert team to investigate after the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine and other hospitals find additional cases.
- Dec. 30, 2019: Doctors in Wuhan report positive tests for “SARS Coronavirus” to local health officials. Under the 2005 International Health Regulations, the PRC is required to report these results to the WHO within 24 hours. They do not.
- Dec. 31, 2019: WHO officials in Geneva become aware of media reports regarding an outbreak in Wuhan and direct the WHO China Country Office to investigate.
- Jan. 2020: Linfa Wang meets with collaborators at the WIV, likely including Shi and Hu.
- Jan. 1, 2020: Hubei Provincial Health Commission official orders gene sequencing companies and labs who had already determined the novel virus was similar to SARS to stop testing and to destroy existing samples. Dr. Li Wenliang is detained for “rumor mongering.”
- Jan. 2, 2020: The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) completes gene sequencing of the virus, but the CCP does not share the sequence or inform the WHO. PRC aggressively highlights the detentions of the Wuhan doctors.
- Jan. 3, 2020: China’s National Health Commission ordered institutions not to publish any information related to the “unknown disease” and ordered labs to transfer samples to CCP controlled national institutions or destroy them.
- Jan. 11-12, 2020: After a researcher in Shanghai leaks the gene sequence online, the CCP transmits the WIV’s gene sequencing information to the WHO that was completed 10 days earlier. The Shanghai lab where the researcher works is ordered to close.
- Jan. 14, 2020: Xi Jinping is warned by a top Chinese health official that a pandemic is occurring.
- Jan. 18, 2020: Linfa Wang departs Wuhan.
- Jan. 20, 2020: WIV researchers submitted an article claiming that SARS-CoV-2 is natural in origin. The article renames ID4991 as RaTG13 and contained false information about when the genomic sequence for the virus was obtained.
- Jan. 23, 2020: The CCP institutes a city-wide lockdown of Wuhan. However, before the lockdown goes into effect, an estimated 5 million people leave the city.
- Last Week of January 2020: Daszak and other outside experts edit a letter to be sent by the Presidents of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Daszak pushes for language to address “conspiracy theories.”
- Jan. 30, 2020: One week after declining to do so, Tedros declares a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
- Late Jan. – Early Feb. 2020: PRC researchers, likely those at the WIV, request Peter Daszak’s assistance in responding to suggestions of a lab leak or genetic manipulation of SARS-CoV-2. Daszak helps edit the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s response to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on the origins of COVID-19.
- Feb. 3, 2020: The WIV researchers’ paper submitted on January 20th is published by Nature online.
- Feb. 6, 2020 at 12:43:40 am: Daszak sends the draft Lancet statement, which cites the Feb. 3 WIV paper, to Wang, Baric, and others asking them to join as cosigners. Within hours, Wang calls him, informs Daszak that he will not sign, and requests that neither Daszak or Baric sign.
- Feb. 6, 2020 (Afternoon): At 3:16pm, Daszak send a High Important email to Baric, forwarding Wang’s request, and informing Baric the statement will be “put out in a way that doesn’t link it back to our collaboration.” At 4:01:22 pm, Baric agrees to not sign the statement.
- Feb. 7, 2020: Dr. Li, who first shared the positive SARS test results with his classmates via WeChat, dies from COVID-19.
- Feb. 9, 2020: The death toll for COVID-19 surpasses that of SARS.
- Feb. 15, 2020: First death from COVID-19 outside of Asia occurs, in France.
- Feb. 16, 2020: WHO and PRC officials begin a nine-day “WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease 2019” and travel to the PRC to examine the outbreak and origin of COVID-19. Many team members, including at least one American, were not allowed to visit Wuhan.
- Feb. 18, 2020: Daszak statement is published by the Lancet online, which references the letter from the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine he helped write and the WIV’s February 3rd paper on the origins of COVID-19. Despite drafting the letter, Daszak is not listed as the corresponding author.
- Feb. 25, 2020: For the first time, more new cases are reported outside of PRC than within.
- Feb. 26, 2020: The WHO-China Joint Mission issues its findings, praising the PRC for its handling of the outbreak.
- Feb. 29, 2020: The first reported COVID-19 death in the United States occurs.
- March 11, 2020: The WHO officially declares the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic after 114 countries had already reported 118,000 cases including more than 1,000 in the United States.
- Nov. 17, 2020: As a result of public pressure, Shi, Hu, and other WIV researchers publish an addendum to their February 3rd paper, confirming that RaTG13 was ID4991 collected from the cave in Yunnan, and revealing they collected 293 coronaviruses from the cave between 2012 and 2015.
- June 15, 2021: The Presidents of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine release a statement saying, “let scientific evidence determine origin of SARS-CoV-2.”
- June 21, 2021: After public pressure, Daszak updates his public disclosure form for the Lancet statement. He does not mention the WIV or that the statement was drafted at the request of PRC researchers.
- July 5, 2021: Daszak and 23 of the original 27 authors release an update to their February 2021 statement, walking back their labeling of public debate around the source of the virus as “conspiracy theories.”
This news was not reported on mainstream media, but some independent reporters picked it up. Watch a Youtube video of Saagar Enjeti summarizing the facts of this report here.
What do you make of this evidence that was released just now?
