Republicans are calling for immediate action against the Chinese government, citing a new U.S. Department of Energy report that cites a “laboratory leak” as the cause of the COVID-19 outbreak.
“What’s important is holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable so this doesn’t happen again,” tweeted Senator Tom Cotton.
His call was echoed by Senator Rick Scott.
“The left has spent the last 2 years trying to censor the truth and cover up Communist China, but the facts are undeniable. (…) It’s time to hold this evil regime accountable,” Scott’s tweet follows.
Senator Marsha Blackburn noted, “For years, Anthony Fauci and Joe Biden officials have called this a conspiracy.”
Senator Josh Hawley said he would reintroduce a bill requiring more information about what the U.S. government learned about the COVID-19 outbreak.
“The American people deserve the full truth about the origin of COVID. (…) I will once again introduce a bill to make the U.S. government’s intelligence reports about COVID open to the people,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, Senator Dan Sullivan said on NBC that there should be an “extensive” public hearing in Congress on the origins of COVID-19.
Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that experts at the U.S. Department of Energy had concluded that the coronavirus likely spread due to a laboratory leak in China.
“The Department of Energy now agrees with the FBI that the virus likely began to spread because of a laboratory incident in the PRC,” the publication said.
The department came to that conclusion after reviewing new intelligence. The FBI reached a similar conclusion, using its own sources, in 2021.
However, according to the newspaper, so far, there is no consensus on this issue in the U.S. government. Four government agencies, as well as a specially formed group of intelligence specialists, still lean toward the theory of natural origin of the virus. Two other U.S. agencies are not yet able to come to a definite conclusion.
Shortly after the pandemic began, incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly voiced the “laboratory” origin of the coronavirus. He claimed that China would need to compensate the world for the damage caused by the coronavirus. Trump himself often referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus,” and his opponents criticized such claims. Under current U.S. President Joe Biden, the work to determine the origin of COVID-19 continues.
