U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has released a new report on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, citing increasing evidence that it started with a lab leak in Wuhan, China.
“After years of censorship, there is growing evidence that some type of lab accident is responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic," the senator said in a news release. "This report, which took two years to compile, edit, and refine, is a groundbreaking look at what was happening in China during the years and months leading up to the known outbreak of the pandemic."
The report is titled, "A Complex and Grave Situation."
Chinese scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) have been studying coronaviruses since 2004, and the WIV established China's first Biosafety Level 4 lab in 2017 or early 2018, constructed by a Chinese firm likely connected to the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the report states.
From December 2019 to October 2021, researchers at WIV submitted patent applications for inventions aimed at addressing issues with the lab's differential air pressure system, bio-containment equipment, and waste-handling process, according to the report. It asserts that the existence of these problems raised concerns regarding the potential escape of a pathogen from the lab complex, and that WIV researchers substantiated this concern by explicitly stating that their inventions were specifically designed to prevent such a scenario.
Chinese scientists concluded as early as January 2020 that the Wuhan wet market was unlikely to be the source of SARS-CoV-2, a stance that continues to be upheld by the Chinese CDC, according to Rubio's report. However, In February 2020, China initiated a campaign to enhance biosafety measures at WIV)and other laboratories. This campaign included inspections, stricter regulations, and the elimination of unauthorized research. Simultaneously, while publicly denying the possibility of COVID-19 originating from a lab, Beijing was internally cautioning its officials about such risks and implementing new protocols to prevent potential lab accidents, the report said.
“I am grateful to the staff, fellows, and outside experts who worked to connect the dots," the senator said in a statement. "Their work helps fill in some critical blanks and has already contributed to other reports, hearings, and investigations. The implications are impossible to ignore: Beijing hid the truth. This report reinforces the need to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable.”
