Tom Cotton on Coronavirus Origins: Lab-Leak Hypothesis Was ‘Always Reasonable’ but Media Denounced as Conspiracy
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) doubled down Monday following resurfacing questions on the origins of the Chinese coronavirus, noting that the lab leak hypothesis was “always reasonable” but quickly denounced as a conspiracy theory by “reporters & activists in white lab coats.”
“The common-sense case for a lab leak is the same as it was in January 2020, when I first mentioned the possibility,” Cotton said Monday following a Wall Street Journal report detailing a U.S. intel report finding that three Wuhan lab workers became sick and were hospitalized, exhibiting symptoms consistent with the Chinese coronavirus in Fall 2019.
“Isn’t it strange that this once-in-a-century bat coronavirus pandemic just happened to emerge within a few miles of China’s biggest laboratory researching bat coronaviruses? Shouldn’t we at least look at that lab?” he asked before citing the WSJ story specifically, adding that evidence of a lab leak “has been building for months.”
“The lab-leak hypothesis was always reasonable, but reporters & activists in white lab coats nonetheless spent the better part of a year denouncing it as a ‘conspiracy theory.’ They were wrong,” Cotton said, demanding “truth” and “accountability” and a “full, impartial investigation into COVID-19 origins, with a special focus on the Wuhan labs.”
“The Wuhan Institute of Virology & Wuhan CDC need to open their doors & databases for a full audit of their research—especially dangerous gain-of-function research. The CCP needs to stop obstructing investigators, destroying evidence, and telling ridiculous lies,” he said, adding Americans also deserve answers from U.S. health leaders, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, “about U.S. involvement in bat-coronavirus research at the Wuhan lab.”
The common-sense case for a lab leak is the same as it was in January 2020, when I first mentioned the possibility.
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) May 25, 2021
Three Wuhan lab researchers went to the hospital with COVID symptoms in November 2019—a month before the first confirmed case of the disease.
It’s time for the Chinese Communist Party to come clean about what happened at that lab.https://t.co/7XZrLRCBFH
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) May 25, 2021
The lab-leak hypothesis was always reasonable, but reporters & activists in white lab coats nonetheless spent the better part of a year denouncing it as a “conspiracy theory.” They were wrong.
But that’s not what’s most important now. What’s important is truth & accountability.
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) May 25, 2021
The Wuhan Institute of Virology & Wuhan CDC need to open their doors & databases for a full audit of their research—especially dangerous gain-of-function research.
The CCP needs to stop obstructing investigators, destroying evidence, and telling ridiculous lies.
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) May 25, 2021
If we want closure in the aftermath of this pandemic—and if we want to avert the next one—we must learn about its origin. That means we must look at the lab in Wuhan and the experimental research its scientists performed.https://t.co/id456z7xAs
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) May 25, 2021
On Monday, the White House warned Americans from believing theories on the origins of the virus until a full investigation is completed.
“What we can’t do, and what I would caution anyone doing, is leaping ahead of an actual international process,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters during Monday’s briefing. “We don’t have enough data and information to jump to a conclusion at this point in time.”
“We have repeatedly called for the W.H.O. to support an expert-driven evaluation of the pandemic’s origins that is free from interference or politicization,” she said, failing to explain why Americans should trust the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) with that task given its initial complicity with China, which downplayed and covered up the threat.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/05/25/tom-cotton-on-coronavirus-origins-lab-leak-hypothesis-was-always-reasonable-but-media-denounced-as-conspiracy/