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Eight Senators Call For Investigation Into Coronavirus Origins

This article is more than 3 years old.

Another origin story. Another call for an investigation. Only this one is no fictional superhero, or involves an American politician.

The nasty new SARS coronavirus remains an unsolved mystery, but new reports in The Washington Post this week suggest that official Washington is becoming more convinced that the virus escaped a virology lab doing research with bat-borne coronaviruses.

So on Thursday, China hawk and Florida Senator Marco Rubio along with seven other Republicans, called on the Trump Administration to work with Japan, South Korea, and European nations to investigate the origins of COVID-19, as well as the World Health Organization’s decision making during peak crisis in China’s Hubei province back in February.

The 8 senators, all Republicans, urged Trump to appoint a high-level Presidential Envoy to lead international coordination efforts both for COVID-19 response and for related investigations.

MORE FROM FORBESChina Lab In Focus Of Coronavirus Outbreak

This week, Washington Post’s Global Opinions columnist, Josh Rogin, reported on cables from the State Department warning of a Wuhan virology lab’s safety standards. Those cables revealed as recent as 2015 that the lab had sub-par safety standards and could lead to an escape of a deadly virus.

The Wuhan virology lab has received funding from the U.S. government in the past in hopes to help China develop its life sciences field, and to better have a hand into what researchers are doing. In a way, the U.S. has financial rights to the lab as an investor, but China has been reluctant to show any research on the new SARS virus.

President Trump did not indulge reporters on Wednesday who asked if he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping had spoken about the lab. But he did say he is aware of the lab and its being the possible source of this entire global fiasco.

Many leading scientists, including National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease director Anthony Fauci, say that had China been more forthcoming in information about the virus, countries now suffering from it would have been more prepared.

Rubio and others signed the letter today, saying: China’s “obstruction and distortion demonstrates reckless disregard for global public health.”

Full text of letter:


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