Senate passes legislation calling for declassification of info on origins of COVID-19 pandemic

The Senate on Wednesday passed legislation introduced by GOP Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Mike Braun of Indiana that calls for the declassification of any information pertaining to potential connections between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the genesis of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bill calls for the Director of National Intelligence to declassify any information regarding links between the facility and the pandemic's origins, including information about any activity the facility has undertaken with or on behalf of China's People's Liberation Army, any COVID-19 research carried out at the facility prior to the outbreak and any researchers at the facility who became sick in the autumn of 2019.

"We're here tonight for a very simple reason with a very simple proposition: That the American people deserve to know about the origins of COVID-19. They deserve to know how this terrible pandemic that has ravaged the globe and our country, how it got started and what China's role was in starting it," Hawley said on the Senate floor prior to the bill's passage through unanimous consent.