Republicans Dive Into COVID Origins With Fresh Fervor

U.S. House Oversight lawmakers held a subcommittee hearing Wednesday to dig further into where COVID-19 originated and who may be responsible. Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, led the hearing, saying they will be investigating not just COVID’s origins, but also decisions made during the pandemic. He began by laying out evidence that the virus came from a lab. "The genome of COVID-19 is inconsistent with expectations and is unique for its group of viruses," he said. "COVID-19 has both a binding domain optimized for human cells and a furin cleavage site – or a small part of the virus that makes it so infectious – that has never been seen before in SARS related viruses. In other words, COVID-19 has unique characteristics that made it very infectious to humans. These have never been seen before in any other viruses of its type."