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A new U.S. government assessment that COVID-19 likely originated from a lab leak in China has ignited yet another round of political furor around the issue, adding to many Republicans’ anger over how the pandemic was handled even as many scientists remain convinced the virus most likely originated naturally.
Why it matters: Even though U.S. intelligence agencies are divided on which direction the evidence points, some prominent members of the GOP are already seizing on the news as evidence that they were right all along.
What they’re saying: “The same people who shamed us, canceled us, & wanted to put us in jail for saying covid came from the Wuhan Lab … are starting to say what we said all along,” tweeted Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-Ga.).
- “Being proven right doesn’t matter. What matters is holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable so this doesn’t happen again,” wrote Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who first raised the lab leak theory in 2020.
- “So the government caught up to what Real America knew all along,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote on Twitter.
- “When an agency comes out and says they’re leaning this way but with ‘low confidence?’ I mean, how do you interpret that?” Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, told Axios. “The question is: ‘Why did you even put it out there?'” he said.
- “As I said before, I am willing to reconsider my hypothesis if presented with verifiable, affirmative evidence,” tweeted Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization. “For now, I see no evidence that suggests the current scientific evidence base is incorrect. And that evidence base continues to suggest the pandemic originated via zoonotic spillover at the Huanan market.”
The big picture: The most tangible outcome may be that Republicans will use the Energy Department findings to demand answers from NIH about its oversight of risky research, and tie those to any funding increase for fiscal 2024, said Chris Meekins, a health care analyst at Raymond James.