GOP launches probe into COVID origins with letter to Fauci

By FARNOUSH AMIRI and NOMAAN MERCHANT
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans have kicked off an investigation into the origins of COVID-19 by issuing a series of letters to current and former Biden administration officials for documents and testimony. The Republican chairmen of the House Oversight Committee and the subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic requested information Monday from several people on the hypothesis that coronavirus leaked accidentally from a Chinese lab. Among those contacted is the country’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Many scientists say they still believe the virus most likely occurred in nature and jumped from animals to humans. Virus researchers have not publicly identified any key new scientific evidence that might make the lab-leak hypothesis more likely.