Since the beginning of the pandemic, the search for the origin of the virus has been distorted by politics on many fronts: from China’s restrictions on the release of scientific information and refusal to cooperate with international investigations, to former president Donald Trump’s “China virus” and “kung flu” slurs, to the unfounded and continued branding of the lab-leak hypothesis as a fringe conspiracy theory by influential news organizations and high-profile scientists – including some with financial and research ties to the Wuhan labs at the center of the lab-leak hypothesis.
Meanwhile in Congress, investigations and hearings that might be able to unearth information related to the origin of the pandemic – including from US funding agencies and those involved in academic scientific collaborations on potentially risky research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology – have overwhelmingly been conducted by Republicans, with little engagement from Democrats.