Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is leading a bipartisan effort to create a task force to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak and to improve responses to future outbreaks.
Ernst, along with Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced the bipartisan National Task Force on the COVID-19 Pandemic Act, which would create a 9/11 Commission-style task force to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the pandemic.
The task force would probe the pandemic's origins, the U.S. response, availability of medical supplies and other resources, public health messaging, the government's role in the development and distribution of vaccines, and more.
"Americans deserve to know the truth about the origins of COVID-19," Ernst said. "I'm taking action to ensure every American has answers to how this global pandemic was unleashed on the world and ensure this never happens again. Every day we delay this independent, transparent investigation, we risk a fatal repeat. We must uncover the truth before it is too late."
The task force would have the authority to hold hearings, take testimony, and issue subpoenas. It is comprised of 12 members, six appointed from each party. The task force would submit an interim report to Congress and the president within six months, and a final report within 18 months of its initial meeting.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in April held a hearing on "Investigating the Origins of COVID-19, Part 2: China and the Available Intelligence" to explore declassified intelligence related to COVID-19 origins and examine China's complicity in suppressing the origination of the global pandemic.
Select Subcommittee members inquired about the misinformation spread by public health officials during the pandemic, the intelligence community's understanding of COVID-19 origins, and the Chinese government's lack of transparency.
Expert witnesses testified that current American intelligence and intelligence during the height of the pandemic support the lab leak as the only credible explanation for the origination of COVID-19.
The witnesses also detailed the politicization of the lab-leak hypothesis by intelligence community officials who were afraid to align with the beliefs of the Republican administration.
The COVID-19 virus first circulated in Wuhan, China, no later than November 2019, according to the U.S. 2021 intelligence report. The pandemic's origin has been the subject of debate among academics, intelligence experts, and lawmakers.
More than 1 million Americans have died from COVID-19.
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