Malliotakis: New Details in COVID-19 Origins Show Massive Coverup by Chinese Communist Party

Statement

(WASHINGTON, DC) - Today Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11), member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, issued the below statement following the release of new details in the House Foreign Affairs Committee's investigation into the true origins of COVID-19. Ranking Member Michael McCaul, who released Foreign Affairs Republicans' original report in September 2020, today issued an addendum outlining more evidence that points to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) as the source of the outbreak, and some of the many steps researchers at the WIV, along with Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance, took to cover up the research being done there.

"The details outlined in this addendum are shocking and provide even more evidence that COVID-19 originated in the WIV and that Chinese Communist Party went to great lengths to cover it up," said Congresswoman Malliotakis. "We know the WIV was genetically modifying coronaviruses in sub-par conditions; we know that scientists working at the WIV began displaying symptoms of COVID-19 in the early fall of 2019, and we know that the Military World Games held in Wuhan in 2019 was likely the first super spreader event of this pandemic. While Republicans on the Foreign Affairs Committee and Select Subcommittee on COVID-19 have made significant headway in this investigation, it's time for the President to push our allies and the World Health Organization to conduct a more thorough investigation to get to the bottom of what truly happened here and hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable. Over four million people succumbed to this virus, including more than 600,000 in the United States. Yet China mysteriously only reported 4,600 deaths. New sanctions must be levied, Peter Daszak, who funneled American tax dollars from Dr. Fauci and the National Institute of Health to the Wuhan Lab through his non-profit must testify before Congress, and the Democrats must join our efforts to give the American people and the world deserve answers."

"As we continue to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, I believe it's time to completely dismiss the wet market as the source of the outbreak. Instead, as this report lays out, a preponderance of the evidence proves that all roads lead to the WIV," said Ranking Member Michael McCaul. "We know gain-of-function research was happening at the WIV and we know it was being done in unsafe conditions. We also now know the head of the Chinese CDC and the director of the WIV's BSL-4 lab publicly expressed concerns about safety at PRC labs in the summer of 2019. It is our belief the virus leaked sometime in late August or early September 2019. When they realized what happened, Chinese Communist Party officials and scientists at the WIV began frantically covering up the leak, including taking their virus database offline in the middle of the night and requesting more than $1 million for additional security."

McCaul added: "Now is the time to use all of the tools the U.S. government has to continue to root out the full truth of how this virus came to be. This was the greatest coverup of all time and has caused the deaths of more than four million people around the world, and people must be held responsible."

Yesterday Malliotakis appeared on Fox News' The Story with Trace Gallagher to discuss the latest in the investigation.

Other findings from the report include:

It is believed that the virus escaped "sometime prior to September 12, 2019" -- the day that urgent inspections were called for the lab and its viral sequence database disappeared from the internet in the middle of the night. Additionally $1.2 million in security funds were requested
The WIV ordered a hazardous waste treatment system and environmental air disinfection system.
Satellite imagery of Wuhan in September and October showed a significant increase in hospital visits and activity within 5 miles of the lab. Internet searches for pneumonia-like symptoms now known to be COVID.
Dr. Peter Daszak is not trustworthy. He and other top scientists tried to hide WIV connection & suppress the WIV investigation by bullying other scientists who questioned whether the virus could have leaked from a lab; misleading the world about how a virus can be modified without leaving a trace; and, in many, instances directly lying about the nature of the research they were conducting, as well as the low-level safety protocols they were using for that research.
The CCP detained doctors in order to silence them and disappeared journalists who attempted to expose the truth about the origins of COVID-19. They destroyed lab samples and hid the fact there was clear evidence of human-to-human transmission. And they still refuse to allow a real investigation into the origins. At the same time, the WHO, under Director General Tedros, failed to warn the world of the impending pandemic. Instead, he parroted CCP talking points, acting as a puppet of General Secretary Xi.

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