GOP launches probe into COVID origins with letter to Fauci
Independent
The Facts
Republicans on the US House Oversight Committee and Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, fulfilling a promise they made before taking the majority in the 2022 midterm elections, have begun an investigation into the origins of COVID.
Subcommittee chairman Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said the probe must establish "where and how" COVID emerged so Congress can "predict, prepare or prevent it from happening again." The committees have requested documents and testimony from Biden admin. officials such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and Health Secretary Xavier Beccera.
The Spin
Republican narrative
Fauci, and others who received requests to testify before the committees, have avoided facing the music long enough. They successfully ignored a Dec. 13, 2022 request, but now that Republicans are in charge it’s time to follow up on previous reports of tax dollars funding the Wuhan lab and the possibility that COVID was either an accidental lab leak or even a PRC bioweapon. If those asked to speak have information to the contrary, they are welcome to and should present it to Congress.
Democratic narrative
Any legitimate investigation into the origins of and response to the COVID pandemic has to start with a committee of astute inquisitors. What the GOP has provided, however, is a committee full of conspiracy theorists and unserious radicals that are unlikely to conduct this probe without politicizing it. If those investigating are the same people pushing dangerous medical disinformation, the committee's findings will end up as just another polarizing kangaroo court for one side of the aisle.
