House Republicans on the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic have subpoenaed one of the authors of a controversial paper on the origins of COVID that cast doubt on the lab leak theory.
The subcommittee, led by Ohio Republican Brad Wenstrup and tasked with investigating the origins of the COVID pandemic, has subpoenaed documents and communications from Dr. Kristian Anderson. Anderson was one of the scientists who helped to draft the “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2” paper that cast doubt on earlier theories that COVID may have escaped from a lab.
“We are following the breadcrumbs of a COVID-19 cover-up straight to the source. Dr. Kristian Andersen played a pivotal role in potentially suppressing the lab leak hypothesis, and Americans deserve to know why this happened, who was involved, and how we can prevent the intentional suppression of scientific discourse during a future pandemic,” Wenstrup said in a statement.
The widely criticized article co-authored by Anderson, published in March 2020, said that it was clear that COVID was not developed in a lab. “Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus,” the abstract of the article says.
Since that time, multiple reports, including reports from the Department of Energy and Senate Republicans, have suggested that the once widely mocked lab leak theory appears to be increasingly plausible.
The subcommittee hopes to obtain Slack messages sent or received by Anderson pertaining to the drafting, publication, and critical reception of the paper. They also asked for messages and documentation on the Wuhan Coronavirus Lab, gain of function research, and other discussions of the pandemic’s origin.
Messages from Anthony Fauci, Francis Collins, and a number of other scientists are also requested by the subcommittee.
“It is clear that the authors of ‘Proximal Origins’ may have possessed conflicts of interest for supporting a zoonotic origin of COVID-19. Fully investigating the internal messages between the co-authors and contributors is a crucial step to inform future legislation and hold guilty parties accountable. The Select Subcommittee looks forward to Dr. Andersen’s speedy and comprehensive response to today’s subpoena,” Wenstrup said.
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A report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released Friday evening shows that some federal agencies believe a lab leak is likely while others favor the natural emergence of COVID.
According to the report, the FBI and the Department of Energy “assess that a laboratory-associated incident” was the most likely cause of COVID. The report says that “almost all” intelligence community agencies do not believe that the virus was genetically modified.