Griffith leads COVID-19 origin effort

Feb. 4—Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-9th District, led a subcommittee hearing earlier this week to "explore the importance of pandemic origin investigations as a means of bolstering our country's pandemic preparedness and biodefense capabilities."

Griffith is chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and said the origin of the COVID-19 virus should be investigated and a governmental mechanism should be in place to find the origin of any highly contagious virus as well as include plans on how to handle investigations.

"It has been a little over three years since COVID-19 emerged and questions on its origins remain," he said in his opening remarks. "Given the toll the virus has taken, that is unacceptable. I believe the substantial circumstantial evidence favors COVID-19 emerging due to a research-related incident."

Griffith said the committee will "continue to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic since we have jurisdiction over public health and federal biomedical research."

But it goes beyond the COVID pandemic, he said, with seeking an understanding "what structures, technologies, and capacities are needed to more clearly investigate the origins of disease outbreaks in the future"

"Being able to quickly identify the root cause of a disease outbreak or biological incident has important benefits ranging from countermeasure development to differentiating between whether an outbreak was due to a deliberate release, an accidental release or a natural event," he said. "By all accounts, the risk of catastrophic biological incidents and infectious disease pandemics is increasing."

Griffith said with easy travel around the world, many barriers to prevent spread have been removed and humans' interactions with animals are increasing as well.

Future pandemics are also made possible by the increased number of laboratories around the world conducting experiments on potential pathogens.

"Of the approximately 60 bio-safety level 4 labs, which are designed to work on the most dangerous of pathogens, around the globe, at least 20 have been built in the last decade," he said. "More than 75 percent of these labs are located in urban centers where a virus, if it escaped, could spread with ease."

Griffith pointed out that the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China "appears to have conducted at least some high-risk coronavirus research at a biosafety level 2 lab."

That lab has often been suspected of doing research that resulted in the release of COVID-19.

Preparation to be ready to investigate another pandemic is also on the agenda.

"Currently, there is no coordinated whole of government plan for investigating the origins of a disease outbreak or a biological incident," Griffith said. "However, as our witnesses will testify today, a coordinated approach across the government, academia, and the private sector is needed."

The subcommittee also heard a Government Accountability Office (GAO) technical assessment related to technologies and challenges for the investigations of pandemic origins that was requested in June 2021.

One of the challenges in the report is the need for investigators to have more access to samples from early cases in order to be effective in determining the pandemic's origin, Griffith said.

"We must address this issue since some government organizations, including the Government of the Chinese Communist Party, have a history of withholding this type of information," he added.

Griffith said the hearing can provide the basis for a "bipartisan effort to improve our biodefense strategies by incorporating details on investigative approaches and taking the recommended actions."

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Rep. Cathy Rodgers, R-Wash., also spoke at the hearing.

"We owe it to every American to get to the bottom of the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic," she said. "Investigating the origins of COVID-19 has been very difficult and challenging. Some of the hurdles we face are because of inherent scientific challenges. For reference, it took 13 years to determine the origins of the SARS outbreak."

But it has also been difficult to obtain accurate information from China.

"The Chinese government has lied to America and the global health community on information related to COVID-19," she said. "This is unacceptable and my hope is we will be able to join together in our search for the origins of the pandemic with the same bipartisan unity that an airplane crash investigation or other tragedy would receive."

Rodgers said a lesson learned is that the investigation of the origins of pandemics must be treated as a "major part of pandemic preparedness, with a single point of accountability in the federal government."

"We need a plan. We need a point person. We need greater accountability," she said.

Witnesses at the hearing also included multiple academic experts in biodefense.

— Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com

Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com