Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
New GOP Report On Covid's Origin Doubles Down On Lab Leak Theory
The Hill: GOP Report On COVID-19 Origins Homes In On Lab Leak Theory
A House Republican lawmaker’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19 is raising concerns that the pandemic outbreak stemmed from a genetically modified virus which leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese city where the disease was first detected in December 2019. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released on Monday a third installment in his investigation into the origins of the virus and the missteps by the Chinese government in Beijing in alerting the world to the risks of the pandemic. (Kelly, 8/2)
Reuters: Republican Report Says Coronavirus Leaked From China Lab; Scientists Still Probing Origins
A preponderance of evidence proves the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic leaked from a Chinese research facility, said a report by U.S. Republicans released on Monday, a conclusion that U.S. intelligence agencies have not reached. The report also cited "ample evidence" that Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) scientists - aided by U.S. experts and Chinese and U.S. government funds - were working to modify coronaviruses to infect humans and such manipulation could be hidden. (8/2)
In related news —
The New York Times: Those Virus Sequences That Were Suddenly Deleted? They’re Back
A batch of early coronavirus data that went missing for a year has emerged from hiding. In June, an American scientist discovered that more than 200 genetic sequences from Covid-19 patient samples isolated in China early in the pandemic had puzzlingly been removed from an online database. With some digital sleuthing, Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, managed to track down 13 of the sequences on Google Cloud. When Dr. Bloom shared his experience in a report posted online, he wrote that it “seems likely that the sequences were deleted to obscure their existence.” But now an odd explanation has emerged, stemming from an editorial oversight by a scientific journal. And the sequences have been uploaded into a different database, overseen by the Chinese government. (Zimmer, 7/30)
Bloomberg: Virus Flares Again In Wuhan As Delta Challenges China’s Defenses
China is confronting its broadest Covid-19 outbreak since the pathogen first emerged there in late 2019, with the delta variant spreading to places that had been declared virus-free for many months, including original epicenter Wuhan. Delta has broken through the country’s virus defenses, which are some of the strictest in the world, and reached nearly half of China’s 32 provinces in a number of weeks. While the overall number of infections -- more than 300 so far -- is still lower than Covid resurgences elsewhere, the wide spread indicates that the variant is moving quickly. (8/2)
