US lawmakers back Covid-19 Chinese lab leak theory after two-year probe

WASHINGTON - US lawmakers concluded a two-year inquiry on Dec. 2 into the Covid-19 outbreak that killed 1.1 million Americans - backing the theory that the virus likely leaked from a Chinese laboratory.

A 520-page report from the Republican-controlled House select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic looked at the federal and state-level response, as well as the pandemic's origins and vaccination efforts.

"This work will help the United States, and the world, predict the next pandemic, prepare for the next pandemic, protect ourselves from the next pandemic, and hopefully prevent the next pandemic," panel chairman Brad Wenstrup said in a letter to Congress.

US federal agencies, the World Health Organization and scientists across the planet have arrived at different conclusions about the most likely origin of Covid-19, and no consensus has emerged.

Most believe it to have spread from animals in China, but a US intelligence analysis said in 2023 that the virus may have been genetically engineered and escaped from a virology lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where human cases first emerged.