Bombshell Senate GOP report: COVID leaked from Wuhan lab where US funded gain-of-function research

Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall is warning that a new virus could break out of China and cause another worldwide pandemic as he releases "Muddy Waters," a comprehensive new report on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and staff reviewed more than 50,000 documents for the report, which found that the COVID-19 virus was created in a lab and the outbreak was likely the result of two unintentional lab leaks.

"This report concludes most likely this was two leaks," Marshall said during a briefing with reporters ahead of the release of the report. "The possibility of a lab leak in the September-October [2019] time frame, even as early as July or August, was followed by vaccine development in November 2019. And then another lab leak seems to be the most sensible explanation in this retrospective review."

The report determined that the U.S. government was funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 

"I think we're in no better shape today than we were a year ago, three years ago, as far as I'm concerned," Marshall said in response to a question from Just the News.

"There's nothing proving to me that they're doing this type of research in BSL-4 labs," he continued. "Their own documents continue to show that they're understaffed, that they don't have the right facilities to do it in, a huge concern. That's why we've been calling for a halt in all viral gain-of-function research until we get the guardrails around it."

The NIH has "manipulated gain-of-function to be what they say it is and what it isn't, and then they get all lawyered up," alleged Marshall, an obstetrician.

Marshall said viral research should never be done outside of a BSL-4 lab. According to the National Institutes of Health, BSL-4 labs have "the most stringent safety and security requirements."

Marshall said the U.S. government continues to provide funding to China for viral research but to date there are no U.S. scientists in Chinese labs overseeing such U.S.-backed research. 

"If we're funding it, then they need to conform to our rules, and we need American boots on the ground," he said, referring to China.

When asked if he plans to introduce legislation that requires the Chinese government to allow U.S. scientists to be present in the labs that receive U.S. government funding, Marshall said this is something that's currently in the works.

Marshall's report concluded that the Chinese government tried to cover up the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 virus before the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic in March 2020.

Marshall told reporters that U.S. government agencies, including the NIH, as well as the Chinese government, are still withholding from Congress key information about the origins of the virus. There is information Marshall said he could not access, which he is confident would prove two lab leaks occurred in China in the lead-up to the outbreak. 

"There are key data points that are being held back that could help us prove that, but we can't get that data," he said.

Marshall said that his office will continue its investigation into the origins of COVID, but he reiterated his call for the formation of an independent 9/11-style commission to investigate the origins of the virus.