House coronavirus panel subpoenas communications between COVID origin paper authors

The House Coronavirus Subcommittee on Friday announced that it had issued a subpoena seeking private communications from a Slack channel belonging to one of the authors of a publication on the origins of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Dr. Kristian Anderson, in conjunction with co-authors, produced the "The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2" publication and may, according to Chairman Brad Wenstrup, have played a key role in suppressing the idea that COVID-19 escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China. Anderson testified before the committee in mid-June and indicated that he and his co-authors primarily used the Slack channel while drafting the publication. He further informed the committee that it would to pursue a subpoena for those communications because not everyone involved consented to their handover.

"We are following the breadcrumbs of a COVID-19 cover-up straight to the source," Wenstrup said in a press release announcing the subpoena. "Dr. Kristian Andersen played a pivotal role in potentially suppressing the lab leak hypothesis, and Americans deserve to know why this happened, who was involved, and how we can prevent the intentional suppression of scientific discourse during a future pandemic."

"It is clear that the authors of “Proximal Origins” may have possessed conflicts of interest for supporting a zoonotic origin of COVID-19," he continued. "Fully investigating the internal messages between the co-authors and contributors is a crucial step to inform future legislation and hold guilty parties accountable. The Select Subcommittee looks forward to Dr. Andersen’s speedy and comprehensive response to today’s subpoena."

Formerly maligned as a conspiracy, the notion that COVID-19 escaped the Wuhan Institute of Virology has increasingly gained traction among government agencies, including the Department of Energy and the FBI.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.