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WASHINGTON (AP) — Anthony Fauci, former chief White House medical adviser, is expected to testify before Congress early next year as part of Republicans' yearslong investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and the U.S. response to the disease. Fauci, who served as the nation's top infectious disease expert before retiring last year, will sit for transcribed interviews in early January and a public hearing at a later date. House Republicans have investigated whether Fauci or other U.S. government officials took part in any sort of cover-up about the origin of the deadly virus. Fauci, who served under both Republican and Democratic presidents, has repeatedly called the GOP criticism nonsense. Political Cartoons View All 1273 ImagesWenstrup, who is also a longtime member of the House Intelligence Committee, has accused Fauci and U.S. intelligence of withholding key facts about its investigation into the coronavirus.

Persons: — Anthony Fauci, Fauci, Brad Wenstrup, Sen, Ted Cruz, Merrick Garland, Amanda Seitz, Nomaan Merchant Organizations: WASHINGTON, White, Republicans, Republican, Fauci, Democratic, House Intelligence, Wuhan, of Virology, National Institutes of Health, Associated Press Locations: U.S, Wuhan, Texas

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup, who leads the House GOP's investigation of the origins of COVID-19, says he won't seek reelection next year. Wenstrup represents Ohio's 2nd Congressional District and was first elected to the House in 2012. Wenstrup, who is also a longtime member of the House Intelligence Committee, has accused U.S. intelligence of withholding key facts about its investigation into the coronavirus. Political Cartoons View All 1240 ImagesWenstrup's announcement came the same day another longtime congressman also said he would not seek reelection next year. They are among nearly two dozen House members to announce they won't be running again in 2024.

Persons: Brad Wenstrup, Wenstrup, Derek Kilmer, Kilmer Organizations: WASHINGTON, — Republican, Congressional District, Army Reserve, House Intelligence, Republicans, Wuhan, of Virology, Democrat Locations: Cincinnati, Washington

☆ The CIA Politicizes Intelligence on China and Covid
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( John Ratcliffe | Cliff Sims | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Review & Outlook: More evidence that the coronavirus may have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology catches up to those who derided the possibility of a man-made Chinese origin. (02/27/23) Images: AP/Reuters Composite: Mark KellyA Central Intelligence Agency whistleblower claims that the CIA rigged a report on the origins of Covid-19 to exonerate China. According to the allegation, the most senior member of a seven-member CIA analysis team “was the lone officer to believe COVID-19 originated through zoonosis.” His six colleagues thought the intelligence and science “were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment” that the disease came from a lab leak.

Persons: Mark Kelly, “, ” Organizations: Wuhan Institute, Virology, Reuters, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA Locations: China, zoonosis

☆ India's Kerala state reports two deaths from Nipah virus
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Staff members install a sign reading "Nipah isolation ward, entry strictly prohibited" at a hospital where a ward is being prepared for suspected Nipah virus patients in Kozhikode district, Kerala, India, September 12, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer Acquire Licensing RightsNEW DELHI, Sept 12 (Reuters) - India has recorded two deaths from the rare Nipah virus in the state of Kerala, an official from the National Institute of Virology said on Tuesday. One person died this month while another death occurred on Aug. 30, said the official, who declined to be named. Mass testing will begin in the area where the latest cases were found and some quarantine measures have been put in placeThis is the fourth Nipah outbreak in Kerala since 2018. A Reuters investigation published in May identified parts of Kerala as among the places most at risk globally for outbreaks of bat viruses.

Persons: Stringer, Nipah, Rupam Jain, Deborah Nelson, Mark Potter Organizations: REUTERS, National Institute of Virology, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Kozhikode district, Kerala, India, DELHI, Malaysia, Singapore

☆ The Ongoing Mystery of Covid’s Origin
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( David Quammen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

But as the researchers describe it, these apparent contradictions were simply a reflection of their fast-evolving views. It showed that such an RBD had evolved in the wild and might well have gotten into SARS-CoV-2 by recombination, the natural gene-swapping process. The genome was 96.2 percent identical to the SARS-CoV-2 genome as sampled from people during the early days of the pandemic. RaTG13 has attained renown, not just because it constituted strong evidence of SARS-CoV-2’s ancestry in bat viruses but also because the Mojiang mine figures in some of the more lurid scenarios for a lab-leak origin. The inference is that Shi’s team, a year after the mine workers died, may have taken the virus back to Wuhan.

Persons: Andersen, ”, Slack, Matt Wong, ” Andersen, Zhengli Shi, Shi, RaTG13 Organizations: Twitter, Nature, Wuhan Institute of Virology Locations: Houston, Yunnan Province, Wuhan, Tongguan, Mojiang, Yunnan

☆ Biden Administration Moves to Ban Funding for Wuhan Lab
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Sheryl Gay Stolberg | More About Sheryl Gay Stolberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration is taking steps to impose a 10-year ban on funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese research laboratory at the center of a heated debate over the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a memo made public by a House subcommittee on Tuesday evening and an official familiar with the issue. The memo, written by an official in the Department of Health and Human Services, said the institute had failed to comply with repeated requests from the National Institutes of Health for laboratory notebooks and other documents necessary to establish its safety practices. The N.I.H.’s conclusion that the Wuhan institute “likely violated protocols of the N.I.H. regarding biosafety is undisputed,” wrote the official, whose name was redacted. The memo said that suspension of funding was necessary to “mitigate any potential public health risk,” and that there was “adequate evidence” to initiate “debarment proceedings.”The institute, which has not received any federal money since 2020, now has 30 days to respond to the notice.

Persons: Biden, ”, “ Organizations: Wuhan Institute of Virology, Department of Health, Human Services, National Institutes of Health Locations: Wuhan, “

☆ Newly declassified report shows U.S. intelligence community remains divided over likely origin of Covid
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-24 | by ( Zoë Richards | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

(L-R) Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, Director of the National Security Agency Gen. Paul Nakasone, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, CIA Director William Burns and FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during a House Select Committee on Intelligence hearing concerning worldwide threats, on Capitol Hill March 9, 2023 in Washington, DC. The leaders of the intelligence agencies testified on a wide range of issues, including China, Russia, Covid-19 origins, and TikTok. "All agencies continue to assess that both a natural and laboratory-associated origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection," the 10-page declassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said. But "almost all" intelligence agencies agreed that the virus wasn't genetically engineered, and all agencies agreed that Covid was not manufactured as a biological weapon. The spokesman added that "getting to the bottom of the origins" of Covid remains a top priority for the president.

Persons: Scott Berrier, Paul Nakasone, National Intelligence Avril Haines, William Burns, Christopher Wray, Covid, Joe Biden Organizations: Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, National Intelligence, CIA, Capitol, Intelligence, National Intelligence Council, Department of Energy, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Wuhan Institute, Virology, White House National Security Council Locations: Washington ,, China, Russia, Covid, Wuhan, U.S

☆ No direct evidence COVID started in Wuhan lab - US intelligence report
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-24 | by ( Dan Whitcomb | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

June 23 (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence agencies found no direct evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic stemmed from an incident at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, a report declassified on Friday said. "The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency remain unable to determine the precise origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, as both (natural and lab) hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting," the ODNI report said. The report said that while "extensive work" had been conducted on coronaviruses at the Wuhan institute (WIV), the agencies had not found evidence of a specific incident that could have caused the outbreak. U.S. President Joe Biden in March signed a bill declassifying information related to the origins of the pandemic. As of March 20, four other U.S. agencies still judged that COVID-19 was likely the result of natural transmission, while two were undecided.

Persons: WIV, Joe Biden, Biden, Christopher Wray, Dan Whitcomb, Rosalba O'Brien, Jacqueline Wong Organizations: Wuhan, of Virology, National Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, coronaviruses, Wall, U.S . Energy Department, Thomson Locations: U.S, Wuhan, United States, Beijing, China

☆ Opinion | The Government Must Say What It Knows About Covid’s Origins
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Zeynep Tufekci | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

One of those named researchers, Ben Hu, is a leading scientist who has worked on bat coronaviruses related to SARS. In September 2021, DRASTIC also obtained a funding proposal that the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s U.S. collaborator, EcoHealth Alliance, submitted to the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The proposal called for using genetic engineering to perform experiments with bat SARS-like coronaviruses and modify them by inserting features that can increase their ability to infect humans. The feature could also have evolved naturally, and many scientists dismissed its significance as evidence that research set off the pandemic origins. (Some of the scientists have said they later changed their minds).

Persons: Ben Hu, Yu Ping Organizations: U.S, U.S ., Waste, Wuhan Institute of Virology’s, EcoHealth Alliance, Pentagon’s Defense, Research Projects Agency, Wuhan Institute, Virology Locations: Wuhan, U.S, coronaviruses

☆ How a deadly bat virus found new ways to infect people
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +16 min

Scientists found bats with Nipah virus roosting near Sabith’s home. A search of the neighborhood led to a colony, near their house, of flying foxes, a common fruit bat. NETTING NIPAH: Researchers in Bangladesh use nets to catch bats and collect samples to find the Nipah virus in the wild. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir HossainWhether Sabith ate contaminated fruit or somehow came into direct contact with a bat, the virus entered his cells. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir HossainA year later, Chua’s team found the same strain of Nipah virus in flying foxes.

☆ We may never know where the COVID pandemic originated
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

LONDONIt’s the enduring mystery of the COVID-19 pandemic: Where did the virus come from? They also mostly agree that many of the earliest known infections and deaths clustered around a wildlife market in Wuhan, China. Others suspect the pathogen somehow leaked from a Wuhan laboratory, 27 km from the market, where researchers study bat viruses. One concentration of jump zones includes a region of mountains and lakes about 175 km southeast of the Wuhan market. In late 2002, the SARS-CoV-1 virus emerged in Guangdong province, in southern China, and became the SARS pandemic of 2003.

☆ Dr. Fauci Looks Back: ‘Something Clearly Went Wrong’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( David Wallace-Wells | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +55 min

Dr. Fauci Looks Back: ‘Something Clearly Went Wrong’ In his most extensive interview yet, Anthony Fauci wrestles with the hard lessons of the pandemic — and the decisions that will define his legacy. But when people say, “Fauci shut down the economy” — it wasn’t Fauci. But somehow or other, the general public didn’t get that feeling that the vulnerable are really, really heavily weighted toward the elderly. We also had a public-health system that we thought was really, really good. But it was really, really antiquated.

WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday signed a bill that requires declassification of information related to the origins of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the White House said. Biden said he shared Congress' goal of releasing as much information as possible about the origin of COVID-19. The bill sailed through the Senate and House of Representatives without opposition before being sent to the White House. The FBI has also assessed that the pandemic likely originated from a lab leak. China said claims that a laboratory leak likely caused the pandemic have no credibility.

☆ Biden signs legislation to declassify certain intelligence on Covid pandemic origins
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

President Joe Biden on Monday signed legislation requiring the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to declassify information on any possible links between a lab in China and the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines now has 90 days to declassify all information on possible links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of Covid. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also concluded that the pandemic likely began with a lab incident in Wuhan, China, the agency's director Christopher Wray told Fox News. The pandemic began three years ago in Wuhan, China, though it's still unknown how Covid spread to people. The intelligence community was divided in a 2021 report ordered by Biden that reviewed information on the pandemic's origins.

☆ Venture Capital Investors Are Trying to Take Over Pandemic Response
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +19 min

Private capital has been eyeing public health for years. Several founders and investors told me that the failure of Kleiner's fund made Silicon Valley wary of investing in pandemic preparedness. Venture investors love that kind of thing. Public health and private industryWhen COVID hit, Charity Dean was the assistant director of the California Department of Public Health. In the end, almost every pandemic-related product created by Silicon Valley will ultimately require the government as a primary customer.

☆ House Votes 419 to 0 for Declassification of Intelligence on Covid-19 Origins
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Lindsay Wise | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—The House on Friday voted 419 to 0 to pass a bill requiring the Biden administration to declassify intelligence related to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China and the Covid-19 pandemic. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) ), the COVID Origins Act of 2023 passed the Senate by unanimous consent last week. It now heads to President Biden’s desk for his signature. The White House hasn’t issued a formal position on the bill.

Since the Senate on March 1 passed the bill - by unanimous consent - it now goes to the White House for Biden to sign into law or veto. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his intentions. The debate was refueled last month, when the Wall Street Journal first reported that the U.S. Energy Department had concluded the pandemic likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak, an assessment Beijing denies. Four other U.S. agencies still judge that COVID-19 was likely the result of natural transmission, while two are undecided. Representative Mike Turner, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said as he urged support for the measure.

☆ Congress sends bill to Biden requiring his administration to declassify intelligence on COVID-19's origins
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The House passed a bipartisan bill that would require the Biden administration to declassify information related to COVID-19's origins. The origins of COVID-19 have long been debated and theorized. The House of Representatives unanimously approved the bill, titled the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023, in a 419-0 vote on Friday. The bill comes after the US Energy Department recently concluded with "low confidence" that the pandemic was likely the result of a lab leak. Indeed, lawmakers could likely override a potential veto with a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate.

☆ House votes unanimously to declassify intelligence on origins of Covid pandemic, sending bill to Biden
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The House of Representatives on Friday unanimously voted to declassify information on possible links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Covid-19 pandemic, sending the bill to President Joe Biden. The Senate also voted unanimously earlier this month to require Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify such information. President Joe Biden ordered the intelligence community in 2021 to provide an updated analysis of how the pandemic emerged. The intelligence agencies were divided on how Covid started spreading among humans, though they said a natural original and a lab leak were both plausible. The intelligence community agreed that Covid was not developed as biological weapon, and most agencies assessed that the virus was not genetically engineered.

☆ China spent years angrily trying to shut down the theory that COVID-19 came from its labs. It failed.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

China has pushed another theory, suggesting the COVID-19 may have jumped to humans from frozen food shipped from elsewhere in the world. Lab leak theory initially dismissedThe suspicion that COVID-19 may have leaked from a Wuhan lab has circulated since the earliest days of the pandemic. Trump sought to use the pandemic to discredit China, using the xenophobic term "China virus" to describe the disease. A group of scientists criticised the WHO for dismissing the lab leak thesis too hastily, and pointed to gaps in the report's evidence. Yet the lab leak theory has continued to gain credibility, despite China's efforts, and scientists who once dismissed it now think it's a credible explanation.

☆ Another Turn in the Covid Lab-Leak Story
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Journal scoop Sunday that the U.S. Department of Energy has concluded that the Covid-19 virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, doesn’t mean the case is definitive. But it is more evidence that the media and public-health groupthink about Covid was mistaken and destructive. The salient detail is that DOE’s judgment is based on “new” but still secret intelligence. Yet DOE’s new judgment is nonetheless made with “low confidence.” The FBI has concluded that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the “likely” origin of the virus, but other U.S. intelligence agencies either don’t believe they have enough evidence or believe it had a natural origin.

☆ Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Agency Now Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, in 2020. WASHINGTON—The U.S. Energy Department has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress. The shift by the Energy Department, which previously was undecided on how the virus emerged, is noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office.

☆ A Lab Leak in China Most Likely Origin of Covid Pandemic, Energy Department Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Viruses in Cambodian bird flu cases identified as endemic clade
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 26 (Reuters) - The viruses that infected two people in Cambodia with H5N1 avian influenza have been identified as an endemic clade of bird flu circulating in the country, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. The cases reported last week had raised concerns they were caused by a new strain of H5N1, clade 2.3.4.4b, which emerged in 2020 and has caused record numbers of deaths among wild birds and domestic poultry in recent months. An investigation into the source and to detect any additional cases is ongoing, the CDC said, adding that so far there had been no indication of person-to-person spread. The World Health Organization said it is working with Cambodian authorities following the cases, describing the situation as worrying due to the recent rise in cases in birds and mammals. Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Jennifer Rigby in London; editing by Barbara LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ House GOP asks Fauci and dozens of health officials to testify in investigation into Covid origins
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

House Republicans have asked former White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony to testify before Congress as they launch a new investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. "If there are oversight hearings I absolutely will cooperate fully and testify before the Congress," Fauci told reporters during his final briefing at the White House. He stepped down from his posts at the White House and at the helm of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in December. EcoHealth Alliance provided funding, which originated at NIH, to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study coronaviruses. About $600,000 of that money went directly to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study the threat posed by bat coronaviruses.

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