Concerns about Covid-19’s origins, lockdowns and social distancing, and the safety of rushed vaccines were not “fake news” or conspiracy theories, a major US congressional report has concluded. Bryan Hubbard rounds up the findings
Most of the so-called conspiracy theories that were voiced during the recent Covid-19 pandemic were correct, a US congressional committee has ruled after a two-year investigation into the country’s response to the outbreak.
Yes, the virus did leak from a Wuhan laboratory, and the gain-of-function research was funded by US agencies; yes, social distancing and mask-wearing were pointless, and lockdowns did more harm than good. Yes, the Biden administration engaged in active censorship to stop any alternative voices from being heard, and, yes, the vaccines were rushed while adverse reactions were downplayed.
Other countries, including the UK, followed America’s lead and engaged in most of the same strategies that have been condemned by the House of Representatives’ Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
After holding 25 hearings and meetings, which included 30 interviews, and reviewing more than a million pages of documentation, the subcommittee released the After Action Review of the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Lessons Learned and a Path Forward. It’s a damning indictment of the agencies and the people who oversaw the US Covid-19 response.
Dr Anthony Fauci, “America’s doctor” and the former health adviser to the president, is at the center of the web of deceit, the committee concluded. He was aided by other players, including Dr Peter Daszak, whose EcoHealth Alliance charity was used to funnel funds from the National Institutes of Health to the Wuhan laboratory, and former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who allowed infected people into care homes, exposing the most vulnerable to the virus.
There is a political element to the committee, which is primarily made up of Republicans, who endorse many actions of the Republican Trump administration at the start of the pandemic and condemn those of the Democratic Biden administration that followed.
Nonetheless, it’s a significant paper, and one that can serve as a policymaking road map for the US Congress and the private sector during any future epidemics. Here are some of the highlights from the report’s 520 pages.
The virus most likely emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The following are some of the strongest arguments the report cites in favor of the “lab leak” theory:
A lab-related incident involving gain-of-function research is most likely the origin of Covid-19. Current government mechanisms for overseeing this dangerous research are incomplete and severely convoluted, and they lack global applicability.
The charity, under the leadership of Dr Peter Daszak, used taxpayer dollars to facilitate dangerous gain-of-function research in Wuhan. After the select subcommittee released evidence that EcoHealth violated the terms of its National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officially debarred EcoHealth and suspended all federal funding of it.
The select subcommittee’s report also states that the US Department of Justice conducted an investigation of EcoHealth’s pandemic-era activities.
The NIH’s procedures for funding and overseeing potentially dangerous research are deficient and unreliable. They pose a serious threat to both public health and national security. Further, the NIH fostered an environment that promoted evasion of federal record-keeping laws.
Federal and state governments had significant lapses in coordination, were unprepared to oversee the allocation of Covid-19 relief funds, and failed to sufficiently identify waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars during the pandemic.
The Paycheck Protection Program—which offered essential relief to businesses in the form of loans that could be forgiven if the funds were used to offset pandemic-era hardships—was rife with fraudulent claims awarding at least $64 billion in taxpayer funds to fraudsters and criminals.
Fraudsters cost the American taxpayer more than $191 billion by taking advantage of the federal government’s unemployment system and exploiting individuals’ personally identifiable information. Additionally, $200 million of tax money was lost as a result of the government’s inability to conduct proper oversight, implement internal controls and enact fraud protection measures.
At least half of the taxpayer dollars lost in Covid-19 relief programs were stolen by international fraudsters.
Social distancing: The “six-feet apart” social distancing recommendation, which shut down schools and small businesses across the country, was arbitrary and not based on science. During closed-door testimony, Dr Fauci stated that the guidance “sort of just appeared.”
Mask mandates: There was no conclusive evidence that masks effectively protected Americans from Covid. Public health officials flip-flopped on the efficacy of masks without providing Americans with any scientific data, causing a massive uptick in public distrust.
Lockdowns: Prolonged lockdowns caused immeasurable harm not only to the American economy but also to the mental and physical health of Americans, with a particularly negative effect on younger citizens. Rather than prioritizing the protection of the most vulnerable populations, federal and state government policies forced millions of Americans to forgo crucial elements of a healthy and financially sound life.
New York failures: Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s March 25 order—which forced nursing homes to accept infected patients—was equivalent to medical malpractice. Evidence shows that Cuomo and his administration worked to cover up the tragic aftermath of their policy decisions in an apparent effort to shield themselves from accountability.
Evidence suggests Cuomo knowingly and willfully made false statements to the select subcommittee on numerous occasions about material aspects of New York’s nursing home disaster and the ensuing coverup. The subcommittee referred Cuomo to the US Department of Justice for criminal prosecution.
Controlling the narrative: Public health officials often spread misinformation through conflicting messaging, knee-jerk reactions and a lack of transparency. In the most egregious examples of pervasive misinformation campaigns, the Biden administration unjustly demonized off-label drug use and the lab leak theory.
The government even employed undemocratic and likely unconstitutional methods—such as pressuring social media companies to censor Covid-19–related content it disagreed with—to counter what it deemed misinformation.
Contrary to what was promised, the Covid vaccines did not stop the spread or transmission of the virus.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rushed approval of the vaccines to meet an arbitrary timeline. Two leading FDA scientists warned their colleagues about the dangers of rushing the vaccine approval process and the likelihood of adverse events. They were ignored, and days later the government mandated the vaccine for all US military members.
Vaccine mandates were not supported by science and caused more harm than good. The government coerced healthy Americans into compliance with vaccine mandates that trampled individual freedoms, harmed military readiness and disregarded medical freedom. It forced a novel vaccine on millions of Americans without sufficient evidence to support its policy decisions.
Public health officials also engaged in a coordinated effort to ignore natural immunity, which is acquired through previous infection, when developing vaccine guidance and mandates.
Vaccine injury reporting systems created confusion, failed to properly inform the American public about vaccine injuries, and degraded public trust in vaccine safety during the pandemic. To add insult to injury, the government is failing to efficiently, fairly and transparently adjudicate claims for the vaccine injured.
Federal and state governments imposed mandatory lockdowns that were “the primary cause of temporary and permanent business closures,” the report said. More than 160,000 businesses closed, and 60 percent of the closures were classified as permanent. For the businesses that stayed or reopened, the lack of supply chain diversity exacerbated pandemic-era challenges and deepened existing disparities.
Unemployment rates surged to levels not seen since the Great Depression. Overly broad mitigation measures, including the now debunked social distancing guidance, disproportionately impacted sectors with low wage earners. And the Federal Reserve’s economic manipulation to mitigate the pandemic’s impact led to crippling inflation.
America’s healthcare system was also severely damaged by the pandemic. Patients experienced a decrease in quality of care, longer wait times, shorter medical appointments and missed diagnoses.
“The science” never justified prolonged school closures. Children were unlikely to contribute to the spread of Covid-19 or suffer severe illness or mortality. Instead, as a result of school closures, children experienced historic learning loss, higher rates of psychological distress and decreased physical well-being.
Standardized test scores show that children lost decades worth of academic progress as a result of school closures. Mental and physical health concerns also skyrocketed—suicide attempts by 12-to-17-year-old girls rose 51 percent.
HHS engaged in a multi-year campaign of delay, confusion and non-responsiveness in an attempt to obstruct the select subcommittee’s investigation and hide evidence that could incriminate or embarrass senior public health officials. It appears that HHS even intentionally under-resourced the department that responds to legislative oversight requests.
Dr Daszak obstructed the select subcommittee’s investigation by providing publicly available information, instructing his staff to reduce the scope and pace of productions, and doctoring documents before releasing them to the public. Further, he provided false statements to Congress.
New York’s Executive Chamber—led by Governor Kathy Hochul—redacted documents, made numerous illegitimate privilege claims and withheld thousands of documents without an apparent legal basis to obstruct the select subcommittee’s investigation into former governor Cuomo’s pandemic-era failures.
Dr Fauci’s senior advisor Dr David Morens deliberately obstructed the select subcommittee’s investigation, likely lied to Congress on multiple occasions, unlawfully deleted federal Covid-19 records and shared nonpublic information about NIH grant processes with Dr Daszak.
The Biden administration debarred Daszak and EcoHealth on January 17. But only minutes before leaving office, Biden issued a preemptive pardon for Fauci, retroactive to 2014, meaning the doctor can’t be prosecuted by the federal government for any crimes he’s committed since then.
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