Probe into 'high-risk biological research and technology' to investigate COVID-19 origins and more



GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan — the ranking member and chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, respectively — plan to conduct a probe into the national security risks pertaining to "high-risk biological research and technology in the U.S. and abroad," according to a press release, which indicates that the oversight effort will involve investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Paul and Peters plan to hold hearings and conduct government-wide oversight on areas including high-risk life science research, biodefense, synthetic biology, biosafety and biosecurity lapses, early warning capabilities for emerging outbreaks or possible attacks, and potential origins of the COVID-19 pandemic," the press release notes.

"This bipartisan oversight effort will assess and identify measures to mitigate longstanding and emerging risks and threats that may result in serious biological incidents – whether deliberate, accidental, or natural. The investigation will also seek to increase transparency and strengthen oversight of taxpayer-funded life sciences research, laboratories in the U.S. and abroad, and detection of biological threats," the release adds.

Paul, who has served in the Senate since early 2011, has experience working as an ophthalmologist.

"It is well past time for the Senate to conduct a bipartisan inquiry into the origins of COVID-19, and, as part of this investigation, we finally will be holding Committee hearings to do just that," Paul said, according to the press release. "In order to prevent a more catastrophic pandemic from occurring, we must understand the nature of US-funded biotechnology and hold accountable those who engage in risky gain-of-function research."

"I've been banging on the doors of federal agencies for the past three years, relentlessly seeking information on COVID-19, but it’s been nothing short of a wild goose chase. To prevent repeating past mistakes, it's crucial we fully comprehend the dangers of engaging in potentially hazardous bioresearch. This involves shining a spotlight on the gaping holes in oversight throughout the federal research processes and procedures," Paul noted.

Blaze Media's Steve Baker expressed support for the planned probe, writing in a post on X, "Sic 'em, @SenRandPaul !!"

— (@)

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Bombshell report finds Chinese lab mapped COVID-19 virus weeks before China notified the world



Chinese researchers reportedly identified and mapped the COVID-19 virus weeks before China notified the world, according to a new bombshell report. The alarming findings raise serious concerns about China's transparency regarding the initial coronavirus outbreak.

According to documents obtained by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a Chinese researcher uploaded a nearly complete sequence of the COVID-19 virus structure to a U.S. database run by the National Institute of Health on Dec. 28, 2019 – two weeks before China officially notified the world about the deadly virus to the world.

The Chinese researcher has been named as Dr. Lili Ren – a virologist at the Institute of Pathogen Biology of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee noted that the Institute of Pathogen Biology of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences has ties to the Chinese Communist Party and People's Liberation Army. The Republican lawmakers also noted that Ren is a "current subgrantee of non-profit EcoHealth Alliance on the same National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) grant as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which has been debarred from receiving NIH grants for ten years for failing to provide laboratory records requested by NIH and for conducting research that 'did lead or could lead to health issues or other unacceptable outcomes.'"

Ren reportedly tried to publish the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to GenBank – a comprehensive database of genetic sequences that is publicly available and operated by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

However, GenBank reportedly notified Ren via email three days later that her submission was incomplete and that she needed to provide additional annotations. After Ren did not provide the annotations, GenBank deleted Ren's genetic sequencing from its processing queue on Jan. 16, 2020, according to the Washington Post.

Interestingly enough, a different team of Chinese researchers submitted a "nearly identical" genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 to GenBank that was published on Jan. 12, 2020, according to a letter sent to the House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders from Melanie Anne Egorin – a senior official at the HHS.

China didn't officially notify the World Health Organization about the COVID-19 sequence until Jan. 12, 2020.

Before the virus was identified as a novel coronavirus, Beijing had maintained the outbreak was a cluster of cases of pneumonia "of unknown cause" in Wuhan, Hubei Province. Chinese officials linked the outbreak to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan.

"The existence of a SARS-CoV-2 sequence days before the CCP acknowledged an outbreak, and more than two weeks before the China CDC release their sequence, calls into question how early the CCP knew about the virus and how long they withheld this information from the world, resulting in more deaths and wasting critical time to develop vaccines and treatments," said Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Republicans said the Biden administration, the NIH, and HHS have "obstructed and delayed Congressional investigations into the origins of SARS-CoV-2" and "refused to produce this sequence for over seven months."

The sequence was only released to the House Energy and Commerce Committee after it had threatened subpoenas.

Committee Chair Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), and Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) said, "This significant discovery further underscores why we cannot trust any of the so-called ‘facts’ or data provided by the CCP and calls into serious question the legitimacy of any scientific theories based on such information."

"The American people deserve to know the truth about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and our investigation has uncovered numerous causes for concern, including how taxpayers’ dollars are spent, how our government’s public health agencies operate, and the need for more oversight into research grants to foreign scientists," the Republican representatives stated on Wednesday. "In addition to equipping us to better prepare for the next pandemic, this investigation’s findings will help us as policymakers as we work to strengthen America’s biosafety practices and bolster oversight of research grants."

The Wall Street Journal reported, "Having the virus information two weeks earlier 'would have helped in the early stages of the outbreak,' particularly with putting a more effective testing regimen in place, said Richard Ebright, a microbiologist at Rutgers University."

Jesse Bloom – a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle – told the Washington Post, "That two weeks would have made a tangible difference in quite a few people’s lives."

There have been an estimated 7 million COVID-19 deaths.

The Chinese Embassy told the WSJ, "China has kept refining our COVID response based on science to make it more targeted. China’s COVID response policies are science-based, effective, and consistent with China’s national realities. They can stand the test of history."

Ren did not respond to a request for comment from the Wall Street Journal.

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Biden signs 'COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023'



President Joe Biden has signed legislation that calls for declassifying any information pertaining to potential connections between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Today, I am pleased to sign into law S. 619, the 'COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023.' I share the Congress's goal of releasing as much information as possible about the origin of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19)," Biden said in a statement on Monday. "In 2021, I directed the Intelligence Community to use every tool at its disposal to investigate the origin of COVID-19, and that work is ongoing. We need to get to the bottom of COVID-19's origins to help ensure we can better prevent future pandemics.

"My Administration will continue to review all classified information relating to COVID–19's origins, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In implementing this legislation, my Administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible, consistent with my constitutional authority to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security," Biden said.

The House passed the legislation earlier this month in a 419-0 vote.

The measure calls for the Director of National Intelligence to declassify any material pertaining to potential ties between the Chinese lab and the genesis of the pandemic, and provide Congress with an unclassified report containing that information, though the measure allows for redactions the director deems necessary to shield sources and methods.

This is supposed to include any information related to "activities performed by the Wuhan Institute of Virology with or on behalf of the People's Liberation Army," "coronavirus research or other related activities performed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology prior to the outbreak of COVID–19," and information regarding "researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who fell ill in autumn 2019."

It has been around three years since panic over COVID-19 erupted around the globe, leading to draconian measures like lockdowns, mask mandates, and later when vaccines became available, vaccination mandates.

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Chairman of the Lancet's COVID-19 Commission 'pretty convinced' pandemic's origin from 'US lab biotechnology,' suggests governments aren't investigating because even more 'dangerous research underway right now'



The chairman of The Lancet's COVID-19 Commission has come forward to say that he is "pretty convinced" that the pandemic's origin is from "U.S. lab biotechnology." He also warns that even more dangerous research is happening right now – which could be why governments don't seem to be interested in investigating the origins of COVID-19.

Jeffrey Sachs is the Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, the President of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, award-winner of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, a best-selling author, and a Chairman of The Lancet's COVID-19 Commission.

In November 2020, Sachs assembled a task force for the prestigious medical journal to determine the origins of COVID-19. He hand-selected Dr. Peter Daszak – the president of EcoHealth Alliance – to be the chairman of the task force. However, Daszak would recuse himself from the investigation in June 2021, following accusations of a conflict of interest.

Daszak had deep ties with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and funneled hundreds of thousands of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to the Chinese lab. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Daszak has vehemently argued that COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease that jumped from animals to humans. Furthermore, he vociferously argued that suggesting that COVID-19 originated from a lab leak is a baseless conspiracy theory.

By September 2021, the task force organized by The Lancet's COVID-19 Commission was disbanded because of EcoHealth's conflict-of-interest issues.

Sachs said at the time, "I just didn't want a task force that was so clearly involved with one of the main issues of this whole search for the origins, which was EcoHealth Alliance."

Last week, Sachs told Current Affairs that he appointed Daszak to the task force dedicated to discovering the origins of COVID-19 because he said to himself, "Well, here’s a guy who is so connected, he would know."

Sachs added, "And then I realized he was not telling me the truth. And it took me some months, but the more I saw it, the more I resented it."

Sachs revealed that he disbanded the task force because other members were "part of this thing."

He noted that the NIH had been hiding documents from the public – which were later revealed by a Freedom of Information Act request. Emails exposed by a FOIA request revealed that officials with the NIH and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) were concerned that EcoHealth could be conducting gain-of-function experiments at the Wuhan lab.

Sachs noted that Daszak should have informed him that EcoHealth Alliance was "manipulating the viruses."

Sachs said that he requested a research proposal from Daszak, but the EcoHealth head allegedly balked, "No, my lawyer says I can’t give it to you."

A video went viral last month featuring Sachs proclaiming that "after two years of intensive work," he is "pretty convinced" that COVID-19 originated from "U.S. lab biotechnology, not out of nature."

"So it’s a blunder in my view of biotech, not an accident of a natural spillover," he said. "We don’t know for sure, I should be absolutely clear."

Sachs noted, "But there’s enough evidence that it should be looked into. And it’s not being investigated, not in the United States, not anywhere. And I think for real reasons that they don’t want to look underneath the rug."

\u201cWow\ud83d\ude2fProf. Jeffrey Sachs: \n\n"I chaired the commission for the Lancet for 2 years on Covid. I'm pretty convinced it came out of a US lab of biotechnology [...] We don't know for sure but there is enough evidence. [However] it's not being investigated, not in the US, not anywhere."\u201d
— Arnaud Bertrand (@Arnaud Bertrand) 1656776644

In the interview with Current Affairs editor Nathan Robinson, Sachs suggested that scientists were "creating a narrative" of COVID's origins early in the pandemic by collectively claiming that COVID-19 naturally originated from the Wuhan wet market without definitive evidence.

Sachs asked, "Did we find an animal? No. Do we have an explanation of where that furin cleavage site came in? No. We don’t have an explanation of the timing, which doesn’t quite look right."

He accused health officials and the media of pulling a "kind of misdirection" since February 2020.

Sachs believes the laboratory hypothesis is "very plausible."

"The alternative that is the right one to look at is part of a very extensive research program that was underway from 2015 onward, funded by the NIH, by Tony Fauci, in particular NIAID, and it was to examine the spillover potential of SARS-like viruses," Sachs told Robinson.

Sachs suggested COVID-19 may have come from gain-of-function research, "There was a lot of research underway in the United States and China on taking SARS-like viruses, manipulating them in the laboratory, and creating potentially far more dangerous viruses."

"We know that at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the scientists there had been trained by American scientists to use advanced bioengineering methodologies," Sachs explained. "And in particular, we have scientists in North Carolina, Texas, and so forth who do this kind of research, believe in it, argue for it, and say that they don’t want any regulations on it and so on. And they were in close contact with Wuhan Institute of Virology, and they were part of a joint research group that was stitched together by something called EcoHealth Alliance."

Sachs described EcoHealth Alliance as a "vehicle for funding from the U.S. government, especially from the National Institutes of Health, and especially from Tony Fauci’s unit, the NIAID."

Sachs said Dr. Anthony Fauci and the NIH "haven’t shown us anything" about possible research at the Wuhan lab.

"So you saw a narrative being created," he continued. "And the scientists are not acting like scientists. Because when you’re acting like a scientist, you’re pursuing alternative hypotheses."

Robinson asked Sachs why governments aren't vigorously investigating the origins of a disease that has killed more than 6.4 million people in less than three years.

Sachs responded, "There are at least two reasons why they might be doing what they’re doing. One is, as you say, the implications are huge. Imagine if this came out of a lab. And we have, by some estimates, about 18 million dead worldwide from this. That’s not the official count. But that’s the estimated excess mortality from COVID. Well, the implications of that—the ethical, the moral, the geopolitical—everything is enormous."

The chairman of The Lancet's COVID-19 Commission added, "But there’s a second matter that is really important, too. One thing that is rather clear to me is that there is so much dangerous research underway right now under the umbrella of biodefense or other things that we don’t know about, that is not being properly controlled."

He suggested that governments could be saying, "Don’t poke your nose into that."

On Saturday, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said, "The fact that virtually no one in Washington DC wants to investigate the origins of COVID-19 should tell you all you need to know about the origins of COVID-19."

Sen. Josh Haley calls on Fauci to resign following email controversy, demands investigation into coronavirus origins



Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is calling for Dr. Anthony Fauci to resign from his post following the controversy ignited by the release of emails from the nation's top epidemiologist regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Hawley is also demanding an investigation into the origins of COVID-19.

"Anthony Fauci's recently released emails and investigative reporting about #COVID19 origins are shocking," Hawley stated on Friday, and called for him to step down as the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "The time has come for Fauci to resign and for a full congressional investigation into the origins of #COVID19 - and into any and all efforts to prevent a full accounting."

"The public deserves to know if persons within the US govt tried to stop a full investigation into #COVID origins, as recently reported," the Republican Senator of Missouri said. "And Congress must also find out to what extent Fauci's NIAID was involved in financing research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

The public deserves to know if persons within the US govt tried to stop a full investigation into #COVID origins, a… https://t.co/oh4Wxcp8rU

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) 1622814507.0

More than 3,200 pages of Fauci's emails were made public via a Freedom of Information Act request from BuzzFeed News and the Washington Post. There are numerous concerns regarding Fauci's emails, including his opposition to wearing face masks at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are also questions whether Fauci colluded with other top health officials to bury the theory that coronavirus was created in a lab and escaped.

Hawley is demanding a full congressional investigation into the origins of coronavirus. Fauci had been saying that the coronavirus naturally evolved, and dismissed the lab leak theory. But then in late May, Fauci reversed course and called for an investigation into COVID-19's origins and acknowledged the coronavirus pandemic was leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Fauci was asked if he still believed that coronavirus developed naturally, to which he responded, "No, I'm not convinced about that. I think that we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we find out to the best of our ability exactly what happened."

Others have called for an investigation into the origins of coronavirus, including 18 high-profile scientists who published a letter calling for an inquiry to "determine the origin of the pandemic," noting that "theories of accidental release from a lab and zoonotic spillover both remain viable."

"Knowing how COVID-19 emerged is critical for informing global strategies to mitigate the risk of future outbreaks," the scientists proclaimed.

There are also 209 House Republicans demanding a congressional investigation into the origin of coronavirus, and to see if the Chinese Communist Party attempted to cover it up. Minority Whip Steve Scalise (La.), the top Republican on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) demanding a probe.

"We request that you instruct the appropriate Democrat committee chairs to immediately join Republican calls to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its role in causing the global COVID-19 pandemic," the letter reads. "There is mounting evidence the pandemic started in a Chinese lab, and the CCP covered it up. If that is the case, the CCP is responsible for the deaths of almost 600,000 Americans and millions more worldwide."

Vanity Fair published a bombshell report this week following months of investigating, which found "conflicts of interest" including large U.S. government grants "supporting controversial virology research, known as 'gain-of-function.'" Vanity Fair investigative reporter Katherine Eban claimed the conflicts of interest "hampered" the investigation into the coronavirus origins by the United States government.

As far as Fauci being fired, the White House said he's going nowhere and called him "a renowned public servant."

White House press secretary Jen Psaki declared there was no circumstance under which President Joe Biden would fire Fauci, who is the president's chief medical adviser.

"He's overseen the management of multiple global health crises and attacks launched on him are certainly something we wouldn't stand by," Psaki said on Friday. "I understand there's interest in the emails. He's answered a lot of questions on the emails, I don't think I'm gonna have much more to add on them from here."

"The President and the administration feel that Dr. Fauci has played an incredible role in getting the pandemic under control, being a voice to the public throughout the course of this pandemic," Psaki said during Thursday's White House press briefing. "And, again, I would reiterate a lot of these emails are from 17 months ago or more, certainly predating this administration, but some time ago in — as we look to history."

Chinese military 'engineered mice with humanized lungs' in 2019 to test viruses on them: Bombshell report



The Chinese military reportedly "engineered mice with humanized lungs" to test viruses on them in 2019, just months before the coronavirus pandemic erupted. The researchers with the Chinese military studied the humanized lungs to evaluate their "susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2," according to the bombshell report from Vanity Fair, which investigated the origin of coronavirus.

Vanity Fair investigative reporter Katherine Eban released a "months-long investigation" into the origin of COVID-19. The investigation includes interviews with over 40 people, hundreds of pages of U.S. government documents, internal memos, meeting minutes, and email correspondence. Eban noted that she found "conflicts of interest" including large U.S. government grants "supporting controversial virology research, known as 'gain-of-function.'" Eban said the conflicts of interest "hampered" the investigation into the coronavirus origins by the United States government.

The report noted there were "two main teams inside the U.S. government working to uncover the origins of COVID-19: one in the State Department and another under the direction of the National Security Council."

"No one at the State Department had much interest in Wuhan's laboratories at the start of the pandemic, but they were gravely concerned with China's apparent cover-up of the outbreak's severity," Eban wrote. "The government had shut down the Huanan market, ordered laboratory samples destroyed, claimed the right to review any scientific research about COVID-19 ahead of publication, and expelled a team of Wall Street Journal reporters."

"You had Chinese [government] coercion and suppression," said David Feith of the State Department's East Asia bureau. "We were very concerned that they were covering it up and whether the information coming to the World Health Organization was reliable."

Thomas DiNanno, former acting assistant secretary of the State Department's Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance, reportedly wrote an internal memo to his staff that State Department officials "'warned' leaders within his bureau 'not to pursue an investigation into the origin of COVID-19' because it would 'open a can of worms' if it continued.'"

"As the group probed the lab-leak scenario, among other possibilities, its members were repeatedly advised not to open a 'Pandora's box,' said four former State Department officials," according to Vanity Fair. "The admonitions 'smelled like a cover-up,' said DiNanno, "and I wasn't going to be part of it."

The Vanity Fair piece noted that Xi Jinping "announced a plan to fast-track a new biosecurity law to tighten safety procedures throughout the country's laboratories" on February 14, 2020, which was allegedly a "surprise" to the National Security Council.

The NSC zeroed in on one particular study first submitted in April 2020, in which "11 of its 23 coauthors worked for the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, the Chinese army's medical research institute."

The 11,000-word Vanity Fair exposé highlighted the study, which purportedly "engineered mice with humanized lungs" in 2019 to test viruses on them.

Using the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR, the researchers had engineered mice with humanized lungs, then studied their susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2. As the NSC officials worked backward from the date of publication to establish a timeline for the study, it became clear that the mice had been engineered sometime in the summer of 2019, before the pandemic even started. The NSC officials were left wondering: Had the Chinese military been running viruses through humanized mouse models, to see which might be infectious to humans?

NSC investigators reached out to other intelligence agencies about the curious research, but they were "dismissed," according to Anthony Ruggiero, the NSC's senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense.

"In one State Department meeting, officials seeking to demand transparency from the Chinese government say they were explicitly told by colleagues not to explore the Wuhan Institute of Virology's gain-of-function research, because it would bring unwelcome attention to U.S. government funding of it," Eban wrote.

The article placed a spotlight on Shi Zhengli, the lead coronavirus researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who is known as "Bat Woman." Shi Zhengli allegedly received $665,000 from the National Institutes of Health between 2014 and 2019. "Shi's own comments to a science journal, and grant information available on a Chinese government database, suggest that in the past three years her team has tested two novel but undisclosed bat coronaviruses on humanized mice, to gauge their infectiousness," Vanity Fair reported.

Shi has denied that COVID-19 emerged from the WIV lab or that the facility conducts military research.

Dr. Richard Ebright, board of governors professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University, said there are only three laboratories in the entire world that have an "extensive collection of bat viruses, doing some of the most aggressive research:" Galveston, Texas; and Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield told Vanity Fair that death threats "flooded his inbox" after he dared to say that he believed that the coronavirus pandemic originated from the Wuhan lab and did not evolve naturally.

In April 2020, then-President Donald Trump said he had seen classified information indicating that COVID-19 originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Vanity Fair article blamed former President Trump for presenting the lab leak theory, which Eban said "poisoned the waters for anyone seeking an honest answer to the question of where COVID-19 came from," and was "linked to destructive nativist posturing."

'Egg on their face': Media backpedals on Wuhan lab leak theory; journalists try to blame Trump



The mainstream media did some major backpedaling this week on the potential origin of the coronavirus. After months of brushing off the possibility that COVID-19 escaped from a laboratory, left-wing journalists now admit that they are taking the Wuhan lab leak theory seriously, even after they said the theory was "debunked" months ago. Backtracking journalists are blaming former President Donald Trump and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) for the media previously dismissing the now-feasible lab leak theory.

"I think a lot of people have egg on their face," ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jon Karl told Martha Raddatz on Sunday. "This was an idea that was first put forward by Mike Pompeo, secretary of state, [and President] Donald Trump, and look, some things may be true even if Donald Trump said them."

"Because Trump was saying so much else that was just out of control, and because he was, you know, making a frankly racist appeal talking about 'kung-flu,' and the 'China virus,' his notion ... he said flatly this came from that lab, was widely dismissed ... but now serious people are saying it needs a serious inquiry," Karl said on ABC's "This Week."

ABC's Jon Karl on Wuhan lab leak theory: "I think a lot of people have egg on their face....Some things may be true… https://t.co/BHuaHzRGn4

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) 1622403928.0

New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman also tried to blame Trump and Pompeo for the media's failure to take the lab leak theory seriously.

"I think it is important to remember that part of the issue is when this was first being reported on and discussed back a few months after the pandemic had begun, was that then President Trump and Mike Pompeo, secretary of state, suggested they've seen evidence that this was formed in a lab and they also suggested that it was not released on purpose," Haberman said on CNN last week. "But they refused to release the evidence showing what it was and so because of that made this instantly political."

Washington Post reporter Aaron Blake wrote an article titled, "The vexing 'lab leak' theory on China and the coronavirus," which blamed Trump for the media's immediate dismissal of the lab leak theory.

"Given everything we know about how Trump handled such things, caution and skepticism were invited," Blake wrote. "That (very much warranted) caution and skepticism spilled over into some oversimplification, particularly when it came to summarizing the often more circumspect reporting."

Last week, Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler posted an article titled, "How the Wuhan lab-leak theory suddenly became credible." The article stated, "The Trump administration's messaging was often accompanied by anti-Chinese rhetoric that made it easier for skeptics to ignore its claims."

However, a year earlier, Kessler told Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Twitter, "It is virtually impossible for this virus jump from the lab."

@GlennKesslerWP You should probably revisit this one. https://t.co/QpZu5eNAQT

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) 1621948199.0

New York Times reporter David Leonhardt openly admitted that a "lot of people, including a lot of in the media, leaped to dismiss the lab leak theory because of where it was coming from, and the reality is we don't yet know how Covid started."

"I think people made this mistake. I think a lot of people on the political left and people in the media made this mistake and said 'Wow, if Tom Cotton is saying something, it can't be true.' Or they assumed that," Leonhardt told CNN's Brian Stelter. "And that's not right. Tom Cotton does deal in misinformation about things like election fraud, he's said some things that are just wrong. But that doesn't mean that everything he says is wrong."

"Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd conceded a "growing number of scientists are increasingly open to the lab leak possibility."

"And for many, the lab leak idea got tangled up in politics and conflated with the idea that the Chinese deliberately released the coronavirus into the world," the NBC host said.

Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin blasted the mainstream media for not practicing journalism and letting their "Trump Derangement Syndrome" get the best of them.

"Most MSM reporters didn't 'ignore' the lab leak theory, they actively crapped all over it for over a year while pretending to be objective out of a toxic mix of confirmation bias, source bias (their scientist sources lied to them), group think, TDS and general incompetence," Rogin wrote in a series of tweets on Saturday.

"Also, the lab leak theory didn't change. It didn't suddenly become credible. It didn't jump from crazy to reasonable," he continued. "The theory has always been the same. The people who got it wrong changed their minds. They are writing about themselves, with zero self awareness."

"All these reporters scrambling to defend their own records on the lab leak theory are exposing their own hypocrisy & ignoring their basic error. Just report the facts," he wrote on Twitter. "Don't act like its your job to tell us whats ok to think or talk about. Own up to it when you fail your readers."

The theory that the coronavirus originated from a lab has gained traction in recent weeks.

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee say there is "significant circumstantial evidence" that COVID-19 originated from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, and the Chinese military may have been involved.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who last year "strongly" said coronavirus "evolved in nature and then jumped species," now says he is "not convinced" that COVID-19 emerged naturally, and he recommends an investigation into its origin.

Last week, President Joe Biden directed the U.S. intelligence community to "redouble" efforts to investigate the origin of the coronavirus pandemic.