US Lawmakers Ask Biden Admin. Officials to Provide Information on COVID-19 Origins

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – House Republicans requested on Wednesday that dozens of senior Biden administration officials provide information on COVID-19 origins to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, the committee said in a press release.

"House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer and House Committee on the Judiciary Ranking Member Jim Jordan are pressing senior Biden Administration officials, the president of EcoHealth Alliance, and several virologists who authored 'The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2' for information necessary to the Oversight Committee’s investigation into COVID origins and, for the first time, outlined the names of 40 individuals with whom the Committee will be requesting transcribed interviews," the release said.

Jordan and Comer are requesting documents, communications, and information pertinent to the investigation from US Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, among others, according to the press release.

To date, the committee’s probe has found three facts: COVID-19 likely originated from the Wuhan Lab, the United States financed risky experimental research on novel bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Lab, and Fauci acted to conceal the information by "intentionally downplaying the lab leak theory," the release said.

In October 2021, US intelligence released a declassified report on its investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus, which found that the virus had not been developed as a biological weapon. However, the report also argued that Beijing continued to hinder the global investigation, resist sharing information, and blame other countries, including the United States.