A commission in the American Congress on the Covid-19 pandemic published its report on Monday, in which it considers that the escape of the virus from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, is the hypothesis “the most plausible » to explain its origin.
The question of the origin of the pandemic, between potential transmission of the virus by an animal or a laboratory leak, has taken on a geopolitical turn in the United States for several years, against a backdrop of increased rivalry with China.
Donald Trump, recently elected to the White House for the second time, has repeatedly claimed – without proof – that the virus had leaked from a Chinese laboratory, which Beijing firmly disputes. Without resolving this question, American intelligence assured in a June 2023 report that it had no proof indicating that Covid-19 had been created in a laboratory in China.
Two years of investigations
The subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic was established in February 2023, when Republicans regained the majority in the House of Representatives. After two years of investigation, 38 depositions or interviews, and 25 hearings, the commission provided a report of more than 500 pages which will be officially published on Wednesday.
“This work will help the United States, and the world, predict, prepare for, protect against, and hopefully prevent the next pandemic,” declared the president of this commission, the elected Republican and professional podiatrist Brad Wenstrup.
The report boasts of a “consensus” between Democratic and Republican members on several issues, notably on the fact that “ the possibility that Covid-19 emerged from a laboratory or research-related accident is not a conspiracy theory.”
To support their assertion, the elected officials put forward five reasons, including, according to them, the fact that “the virus has a biological characteristic not present in nature”. Nearly five years after its emergence, the international scientific community has not yet managed to determine with certainty the origin of Covid-19.
A study published in September in the journal Cell, however, provided new elements to reinforce the hypothesis of transmission to humans by infected animals introduced into a market in Wuhan at the end of 2019.
With more than 1.1 million deaths, the United States has by far been the country most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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