Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., told Newsmax on Wednesday that the United States must "learn and take into account" the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
McCormick appeared on "National Report" on Wednesday to discuss the hearing by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, a panel formed by House Republicans to investigate the origins of COVID-19.
McCormick, a medical doctor and former emergency room physician, said that "there's no doubt in my mind for a very long time now we've had all the evidence stacked against any of this natural-selection process."
The congressman said that there's "no evidence that any animals have propagated this disease. We've known this, China has put a tremendous amount of time and resources to trying to find some animal that this actually lives in. It doesn't live in other animals in this case, and so therefore it couldn't have come from an animal."
Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe testified on Tuesday that his "informed assessment as a person with as much access as anyone to our government's intelligence during the initial year of the pandemic has been, and continues to be, a lab leak is the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, our science and our common sense."
McCormick went on to say on Wednesday that "whether you're Democrat or Republican: We just need to learn and take into account what [are] the origins of this."
He concluded, "Yes, we already know how to prepare for something comes from animals. But how do we prepare for people who are doing the various things with gain of function research that can actually kill millions of people like in this case, or maybe billions of people in the next case, we have to cut this off and make sure intelligence agencies are all over it and that we don't allow it in general."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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