US reports on origin of Covid-19 - source revealed to be laboratory research and leaks

The Republican committee of the US House of Representatives, which is investigating all aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences, has published a final report on the results of two years of work.

This is reported by the American channel CNN.

The document states that the COVID-19 virus most likely originated in a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan, based on factors such as the biological characteristics of the virus and the disease among employees of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2019.

Most US intelligence agencies believe that the virus was not genetically engineered, but the origin of the pandemic is still controversial. The report emphasizes that if there was any convincing evidence that the virus has a natural origin, it would have been found by now.

Scientists, as before, have not found an animal infected with the original strain of the virus, but the search for the source of the virus is a difficult task. For example, it took more than a decade to find the source of the first SARS outbreak, and the origin of the Ebola virus is still unknown.

The report also contains sharp criticism of the World Health Organization (WHO). The committee claims that the organization has put the political interests of the Chinese Communist Party above its primary mission of helping people around the world, and has also allowed China to control its investigation into the origins of the virus.

The rapporteur insists that China’s lack of transparency on issues related to the pandemic is “inappropriate” and only increases the politicization of the problem. The report cites Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical expert on COVID-19, who said that the People’s Republic of China’s lack of disclosure is “unacceptable.”

In response to the criticism, the WHO has set up a task force to develop recommendations for future pandemics. However, the committee expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the so-called "Pandemic Treaty", stating that in its current form the project does not solve the problems identified during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report also emphasizes that any version of the treaty that concerns the United States must be approved by the Senate.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in November, the first case of the new coronavirus variant "Pirola" was registered in Ukraine.

On October 6, the Ministry of Health approved updated recommendations for vaccination against COVID-19 for 2023-2024.

Recall that the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 2023 was awarded to Hungarian biochemist Katalin Karikó and American scientist Drew Weissman, whose scientific research helped develop vaccines against coronavirus.