House GOP investigates Wuhan lab, COVID origins

House Republican lawmakers on Monday requested that senior officials with the Biden administration provide them with information related to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, along with House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., announced the document requests in a press release.

"The American people deserve real answers after years of suffering through the Coronavirus pandemic and related government policies. This investigation must begin with where and how this virus came about so that we can attempt to predict, prepare or prevent it from happening again," Wenstrup said. "Government scientists and government funded researchers have so far been less-than-forthcoming in their knowledge and actions, including work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology and potential pandemic pathogens. We can't accept more years of stonewalling; the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic is committed to conducting a proper investigation that the American people have demanded."

Formerly maligned as a conspiracy theory, a minority Senate report in October 2022 detailed "substantial evidence" that the pandemic originated as a result of a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a research center in China known to have been experimenting with coronaviruses.

Comer indicated that much of the investigation would focus on alleged improper funding to the lab to perform gain-of-function research, a controversial procedure to amplify certain properties in pathogens that some allege may have made the virus more deadly or enabled its speedy spread.

"Understanding the origins of COVID-19 is essential to providing accountability and protecting Americans in the future. Evidence continues to mount pointing to the virus leaking from an unsecure lab in Wuhan," Comer said. "We know EcoHealth Alliance acted as a middleman, improperly funneling thousands of taxpayer dollars to the Wuhan lab to conduct risky gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses which could have started the pandemic."

The Republicans sent information requests to administration officials, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the president of EcoHealth Alliance.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.