A House Investigation Supports the Lab-Leak Theory. Now What Will Trump Do about It?

On the menu today: I know, I know, “Oh, great, Jim’s writing about the lab leak again.” But the conclusion of two-year investigation by a House panel concluded, as you likely suspected, “The weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab-leak hypothesis.” The question now is what consequences, if any, any Chinese official will ever suffer. Elsewhere, the Chinese make a mild concession on trade in anticipation of the incoming Trump administration, Dinesh D’Souza adds an asterisk to his film, 2000 Mules, and the Biden administration closes with a lot of empty desks in the executive branch. Read on.

Xi Jinping and the Chinese Regime Escaped Consequences for the Lab Leak

Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Accountability Committee’s Covid-19 panel issued its final report on the Covid pandemic. You can read the 557 pages, including indexes, here.

The committee begins with what many of us long suspected — going back to the start of April 2020 — regarding the most likely origin of the pandemic that killed about 7 million people officially and anywhere from 18 million to 32 million if you count all the suspiciously high excess deaths in places such as China and Russia, among others:

Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident. . . .

The June 2023 [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] Assessment stated, “[s]ome [Wuhan Institute of Virology] researchers probably did not use adequate biosafety precautions at least some of the time prior to the pandemic in handling SARS-like coronaviruses, increasing the risk of accidental exposure to viruses.” In February and March of 2023, DOE and FBI publicly acknowledged their respective assessments that COVID-19 was the likely result of a lab incident—FBI with moderate confidence and DOE with low confidence. Other intelligence elements assess COVID-19’s emergence was likely zoonotic, albeit all with low confidence. . . .

In their application to DARPA, EcoHealth and its WIV partners stated their intent to create a SARS-like virus with a furin cleavage site, which is the exact same feature that made humans susceptible to COVID-19 infection. Third, the WIV has a track record of engaging in this type of airborne viral research under low biosafety conditions. At the WIV, it was known that Chinese researchers conducted this type of research under BSL-2 protocols, which do not require masking at all times and involves less protective equipment. In the U.S., this type of research would be conducted under BSL-3 protocols, which require stricter personal respirator use at all times and more protective equipment. In fact, in a draft proposal for the grant to DARPA, Dr. [Peter] Daszak acknowledged that some of the SARS-CoV-2 research would be conducted at BSL-2 at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. . . .

Furthermore, no infected animal has been verified at the Wuhan market or its supply chain.

Key evidence that would be expected if the virus had emerged from the wildlife trade is still missing. In previous outbreaks, such as SARS in 2002 and MERS in 2012, infected animals were found, the earliest cases occurred in people exposed to live animals, and ancestral variants of the virus found in animals were discovered, but none of this evidence has been discovered for COVID-19.

The panel report also noted that John Ratcliffe, who served as U.S. director of national intelligence from May 2020 to the end of Trump’s term, testified:

My informed assessment, as a person with as much or more access than anyone to our government’s intelligence during the initial year of the virus outbreak and pandemic onset, has been and continues to be that a lab leak is the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, by science and by common sense. From a view inside the [intelligence community], if our intelligence and evidence supporting a lab leak theory was placed side-by-side with our intelligence and evidence pointing to a naturally occurring ‘spillover’ theory, the lab leak side of the ledger would be long and overwhelming while the ‘spillover’ side would be nearly empty.

Ratcliffe is slated to become the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In a Trump cabinet full of controversial, bomb-throwing nominees, Ratcliffe stands out as a polished, experienced professional and “as good as it was going to get,” in the words of one intelligence official speaking to CNN.

As I noted in February, those of us who find the lab leak the most plausible explanation “won the argument in the realm of public opinion” in the United States and then “nothing happened. There have still been few real consequences for the Chinese government, and certainly no consequences commensurate to unleashing a plague.”

The House panel did find some evidence that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating EcoHealth and whether it played a role in the cause of the pandemic, but this is apparently an exceptionally slow-moving and hush-hush investigation:

EcoHealth was subject to numerous federal investigations regarding both its potential role in the COVID-19 pandemic, but also multiple accusations surrounding violated federal grant policies. The outcomes of most of these investigations are public. However, the Select Subcommittee discovered that DOJ was also investigating the origins of COVID-19. The specific details of the investigation are unknown but, based on documents, it appears the DOJ’s investigation involves EcoHealth’s role in the COVID-19 pandemic. . . .

According to documents, DOJ subpoenaed EcoHealth’s communications with, at least, Dr. Shi. This subpoena included both Dr. Shi’s official WIV e-mail address and her personal hotmail address.

What’s the statute of limitations on helping start a global pandemic?

Other than this extremely hush-hush DOJ investigation moving with all the speed of George R. R. Martin working on his next Game of Thrones novel, we know what Joe Biden and his administration were willing to do about the growing mountain of circumstantial evidence pointing to a lab leak and the Chinese government’s’ outrageous refusal to cooperate with any serious probe: jack squat.

Biden has not spoken publicly about the origin of Covid-19 since August 27, 2021. After receiving a report from the intelligence community that offered no clear answers, Biden issued a three-paragraph written statement, “We will do everything we can to trace the roots of this outbreak that has caused so much pain and death around the world, so that we can take every necessary precaution to prevent it from happening again. . . . The world deserves answers, and I will not rest until we get them.” One of the reasons this statement is largely forgotten is that the Abbey Gate terrorist attack in Kabul occurred the previous day.

In the entirety of the 2024 presidential campaign, I believe there was just one fleeting reference to the origin of Covid; ironically, it came from Kamala Harris and not Trump. During the debate, she said, “Let’s talk about this with COVID, is he actually thanked President Xi for what he did during COVID. Look at his tweet. ‘Thank you, President Xi,’ exclamation point. When we know that Xi was responsible for lacking and not giving us transparency about the origins of COVID.” There is skepticism about whether Harris believes in the lab-leak theory; like just about every previous and current Biden-administration official, she’s never spoken about the topic at any length. From their behavior, however, it is clear these government officials believe the origin of Covid-19 simply isn’t an important enough topic to discuss. . .

Or that acknowledging that a hostile foreign government, through negligence and recklessness, unleashed a pestilence that killed millions of people around the globe would impede the administration’s desired goals with China.

Meeting with Xi Jinping in Peru on November 16, President Biden boasted of how well the U.S. and China were getting along: “I’m very proud of the progress we’ve both made together. On military communication, at multiple levels our leaders are now regularly talking to one another on a regular basis. On AI, we have brought together our nations’ experts together to discuss risks and safety. Our counternarcotics — on that issue, we resumed cooperation.” According to the readout of Biden’s meeting with Xi, the investigation into the origin of Covid did not come up.

Again, figuring out why a pandemic that killed millions of people started is simply not important enough to these officials.

In a much-discussed lambasting of “the expert class of academics, journalists and like-minded types” that he calls “the Village,” polling and risk guru Nate Silver laid out the hideous record of our elite leaders over the past two decades, and noted, “What was supposed to be a triumph of management for a technocratic elite instead wound up as a worst-of-all-worlds scenario with prolonged restrictions and school closures and 7 million dead — from a virus possibly caused by sloppy scientific research practices.”

Covid ranks among the worst things to happen to us, our country, and the world. And we all either know, or strongly suspect, who is responsible. And nothing has happened to them. If you can get away with that, you can get away with anything in this world. In that light, it’s not all that surprising that high-level White House officials and the president’s family might think that they could cover up the fact that the sitting commander in chief is only “dependably engaged” between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., or that the president might pardon his son after repeatedly promising to never do that.

As Leona Helmsley said of taxes, consequences are what the little people pay.

Every now and then, there’s some new drip-drip-drip in the investigation into the origins of Covid. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky will soon be the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and he intends to keep investigating the origins of Covid.

Former United Kingdom prime minister Boris Johnson, in his new memoir, writes, “The awful thing about the whole Covid catastrophe is that it appears to have been entirely man-made, in all its aspects. It now looks overwhelmingly likely that the mutation was the result of some botched experiment in a Chinese lab. . . . Some scientists were clearly splicing bits of virus together like the witches in Macbeth — eye of bat and toe of frog — and oops, the frisky little critter jumped out of the test tube and started replicating all over the world.”

Now the big question is: What is the incoming Trump administration willing to do about it?

A Small, Subtle Concession by the Chinese Government

The Economist, discussing how Chinese government is reacting to the protectionist voices entering the Trump administration:

The country’s formula for trade talks is starting to emerge. Xi Jinping, China’s leader, laid down “red lines” in a meeting with President Joe Biden on November 16th. The gist was that Communist Party rule and China’s claim on Taiwan should not become bargaining chips in negotiations. Then on December 1st tax rebates on aluminum and copper came to an end. Ones for batteries and photovoltaic products have fallen from 13 percent to 9 percent. This is a striking shift. Over the past year China has rejected claims it is exporting batteries and solar products at artificially low prices. Cuts to rebates are the first time officials seem to have taken action to lessen the force of such accusations, says Martin Lynge Rasmussen of Exante Data, a research firm. Analysts at Sinolink Securities, a broker, call them a “pre-emptive strike”.

China ending tax rebates for exports of those metals was a big deal in the aluminum markets.

An Update from Dinesh D’Souza: Whoopsie!

Those who still argue about the 2020 election should note this statement from Dinesh D’Souza worth noting, regarding his film, 2000 Mules:

We recently learned that surveillance videos used in the film may not have actually been correlated with the geolocation data.

I know that the film and my book create the impression that these individuals were mules that had been identified as suspected ballot harvesters based on their geotracked cell phone data. While all of these individuals’ images were blurred and unrecognizable, one of the individuals has since come forward publicly and has initiated a lawsuit over the use of his blurred image in the film and the book. I owe this individual, Mark Andrews, an apology. I now understand that the surveillance videos used in the film were characterized on the basis of inaccurate information provided to me and my team. If I had known then that the videos were not linked to geolocation data, I would have clarified this and produced and edited the film differently.

Hey, we all make mistakes.

ADDENDA: Yesterday’s edition of the Morning Jolt pointing out the ten times that Biden or his spokesperson promised not to pardon Hunter Biden — with links to original sources, video, and transcripts — is denounced as a “ridiculous smear article.”

A line I wish I had written, from reader J. J. Sheridan: “The Bidens are the only crime family where everyone is Fredo.”

In case you missed it yesterday, with 50 days remaining in the Biden presidency, 103 positions in the executive branch that require Senate confirmation are currently empty and are awaiting a presidential appointment that will probably never arrive until after Donald Trump takes over on January 20. Some of these positions, like head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, are because Biden’s original appointee left (in that case, in November 2022) and no replacement was ever named. In other cases, such as the position of director to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Biden never got around to naming anyone as the nominee to do the job.