Pathogen Research Limits Raised On Day 1 Of House Covid Origins Hearings

Science: Science Takes Back Seat To Politics In First House Hearing On Origin Of COVID-19 Pandemic
Members of the House of Representatives’ Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic mostly hammered home long-standing Republican or Democratic talking points, shedding no new light on the central question: Did SARS-CoV-2 naturally jump from animals to humans or did the virus somehow leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China?“It was very disappointing, and almost unbelievably divorced from the science,” says University of Arizona evolutionary biologist Michael Worobey, whose published research in Science supporting a natural “zoonotic” origin of the virus has been attacked by proponents of the lab-leak scenario. (Cohen, 3/8)

Nature: US COVID Origins Hearing Renews Debate Over Lab-Leak Hypothesis
One of the focal points for Republican committee members was the idea that Anthony Fauci, former director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, had steered the scientific community to dismiss a lab leak early in the pandemic. Ahead of the hearing, they released a memorandum suggesting that Fauci “prompted” a group of virologists in March 2020 to publish a correspondence in Nature Medicine1 concluding that a lab-leak scenario was not plausible. Fauci was not at the hearing to offer his perspective, but in a statement he responded to the memorandum, denying the accusations. He said his only goal was to encourage the virologists to evaluate the origins of SARS-CoV-2. “I have stated repeatedly that we must keep an open mind as to the origins of the virus.” (Lenharo and Wolf, 3/9)

Stat: Revamped Covid Panel Argues For Research Limits, Even Bans
Pathogen-altering research is back under fire here, as Republican lawmakers argue it should be banned until policymakers and scientists work out whether these types of studies have helped advance infectious disease research — or played a role in the global Covid-19 pandemic. (Owermohle, 3/8)

Bloomberg: Covid Origins Hearing Draws Call For Rules On Risky Research
The Trump administration’s top infectious disease official urged lawmakers during a hearing on the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic to ban research that enhances a pathogen’s ability to spread or cause disease. Robert Redfield, who served as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the outset of the health crises, has long maintained that Covid was likely caused by a lab accident in Wuhan, China. (Griffin and Ruoff, 3/8)

Politico: Trump’s CDC Director Says Fauci Shut Down Debate On Covid’s Origin 
Trump administration CDC Director Robert Redfield told a congressional committee Wednesday that his former colleague, Anthony Fauci, and former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins froze him out of discussions on Covid-19’s origins. The accusation came during a politically charged hearing Wednesday of the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and stoked Republican claims that Fauci in early 2020 promoted the view that an infected animal spread the virus to humans to divert attention from research the U.S. sponsored at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. (Paun, 3/8)

The Hill: House Democrats Denounce GOP COVID Witness As Having Racist Views 
A British author and former science editor of The New York Times was the subject of Democratic ire Wednesday when he testified during a congressional hearing on the origins of COVID-19. Nicholas Wade, who said he believes the virus originated in a research lab in Wuhan, China, came under fire by Democrats on the House coronavirus subcommittee for a controversial book he authored in 2014 that has been endorsed by white supremacists. (Weixel, 3/8)