Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, a top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, claimed Sunday the origins of the coronavirus pandemic are the “worst cover-up” in human history.
“You know, I do think it’s more likely than not it emerged out of the lab. Most likely accidentally,” McCaul told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” without providing evidence to support his claim. “This is the worst cover-up in human history that we’ve seen resulting in 3.5 million deaths, creating an economic devastation around the globe.” The comments from McCaul follows a directive from President Joe Biden ordering the intelligence community to redouble its efforts in investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and to report back to him in 90 days.
A US intelligence report found several researchers at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill in November 2019 and had to be hospitalized. Other lawmakers have also called for answers regarding the origin of the virus and members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which has long been investigating the origins of the pandemic, received a classified briefing on the matter earlier this month, according to a source familiar with the matter. The source declined to say whether the intelligence report mentioning the hospitalized researchers was discussed during the briefing [CNN].