US Senate Report: COVID-19 pandemic was the result of a ‘research-related incident’ at a laboratory in Wuhan

A report by the US Senate, which is 302-pages long, has concluded that the coronavirus pandemic may have been caused by a ‘research-related incident’ at a laboratory in Wuhan, thereby lending support to the lab leak theory that suggests that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused Covid, was a result of a laboratory leak.

The report, obtained by Axios, delves into the issue of the origin of Covid and concludes that the nature and early spread of the virus suggest that it could have spread due to biosafety failures. The report posits that there is a ‘preponderance of information’ that affirms the possibility of a ‘research-related incident’ that resulted from ‘failures of biosafety containment during vaccine-related research’.

The Covid outbreak became a pandemic soon after it was declared a public health emergency of international concern in January 2020, killing millions of people and leaving many others struggling with long Covid. While the first case of Covid was reported in Wuhan, experts remain divided over the origin of the virus, with two leading theories that suggest the virus was transferred from wild animals or was leaked from a government lab.

The report does not provide concrete evidence to dismiss the animal-to-human transmission theory, but it concludes that the lab leak theory is stronger.

The report is a result of former Senator Richard Burr’s investigation into the origins of the pandemic, and a smaller version of the report was released last year. The report was provided to Axios by a former senior Republican aide who worked on the report. Burr, in a statement to Axios, called the report ‘credible and worthy of inclusion in the international effort to determine how the pandemic started so that steps can be taken to prevent, or mitigate against, future pandemics’.

Meanwhile, researchers from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention have published a detailed analysis of swabs collected from a wet market in Wuhan, where Covid is believed to have originated. The report confirms the presence of animal DNA in samples that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, and was produced after analyzing the samples collected in the early weeks of the Covid spread in Wuhan.

However, despite several fact-based reports, experts continue to argue that the probe into the origin of the pandemic has been hampered by a lack of coordination from China.