(NewsNation) — The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic held a hearing for the first time Wednesday to investigate the origins of COVID-19.
For the past three years, no one has been able to answer where the deadly virus originated and how.
“I came to believe, and I still believe today, that it indicates that COVID-19 more likely was the result of an accidental lab leak than a result of a natural spillover event,” said key speaker Dr. Robert Redfield at the hearing Wednesday. Redfield is the former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, the U.S. government has yet to take a definitive stance on the origins of COVID-19, as some agencies have pointed to natural transmission as the cause.
The committee, led by Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, gathered facts about the origin of the coronavirus.
Wenstrup said during the hearing that the goal of the committee is to predict, prepare, protect and prevent the next pandemic, and that right now, they are going to have to follow the “bread crumbs here” — the bits and pieces of evidence that they do have, especially since there is still a lot they don’t know.
Recent reports released by the Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded with “low confidence” that the virus might have resulted from an accidental lab leak in Wuhan, China.
“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, protect or prevent’ it from happening again,” Wenstrup said.
At least four other agencies — the administration won’t say which — plus the National Intelligence Council all have said they believe COVID-19 started naturally from animal transmission to humans given the evidence and intel they’ve seen.
Two other agencies, one of which the Wall Street Journal previously reported as the CIA, said they’d seen the evidence but cannot conclude how the virus originated.
Multiple agencies, working independently, have come to different conclusions. Plus, the Chinese government has not been cooperative with any investigations. There also hasn’t been any transparency with the rest of the global medical community, either — from the beginning of the pandemic until now.
Four witnesses testified before the committee — two Republicans and two Democrats — and out of the four, three believed it is most likely that the lab leak theory is correct. However, none of the witnesses were willing to say that with 100% confidence, saying there isn’t enough data or evidence to support a final conclusion.
By following the bits and pieces of evidence, Wenstrup hoped these hearings could lead the committee to reach a consensus on how the virus officially started and spread globally.