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A Republican-led committee of the US House of Representatives has completed a two-year investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. They concluded that the virus was likely of laboratory origin and spread through a leak from a laboratory in the city of Wuhan.
This is stated in the report of the Special Subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic of the US Congress.
It is noted that the virus has unique biological characteristics that are not found in nature. Also, according to experts, all cases of Covid-19 arose as a result of a single introduction into the human body, which contradicts previous pandemics of natural origin.
The report said Wuhan was the location of China's leading Sars research laboratory, which was involved in enhancing the functionality of the virus under inadequate biosafety levels.
It is also noted that in the fall of 2019, researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology contracted a virus similar to Covid-19, several months before the virus was officially identified. The report says that if there had been evidence of a natural origin, it would have been found by now, but so far this has not happened.
The report also criticizes the measures that were aimed at mitigating the consequences of Covid-19 - social distancing and the mask regime. It is argued that "long-term lockdowns have caused immeasurable damage not only to the American economy, but also to the mental and physical health of Americans, with a particularly negative impact on young citizens."
