U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. is leading a new inquiry into the U.S. Department of State’s participation in a recent panel discussion that pushed “important new science” in support of the theory that COVID-19 was a naturally forming pandemic. The panel’s description is in direct contradiction with both the U.S. Intelligence Community’s and World Health Organization’s assessments that a lab leak is a possible source of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The State Department’s Jim Levy, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Space, Science, and Health and Director for the Office of International Health and Biodefense, joined the December 8 “Preventing Pandemics at the Source” panel, as part of the Global Health Council’s 2022 Symposium. Also featured on the panel was Dr. Jonathan Epstein, Vice President for Science and Outreach for EcoHealth Alliance.
In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Senator Marshall, along with U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (IA) and Marco Rubio (FL), outline the problematic nature with Mr. Levy’s participation in an event that endorses the natural origin theory for COVID-19, as well as publicly appearing with EcoHealth Alliance, which has connections to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and refuses to cooperate with U.S. Government investigations in the COVID-19 pandemic’s origins. The Senators wrote in part,
“We write with concern that a U.S. State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary partnered with an executive from the non-profit organization EcoHealth Alliance (EcoHealth) to discuss “important new science” that “strongly supports zoonotic origins for COVID-19… We are unaware of Congressional briefings by the State Department about this new science that apparently strongly supports the COVID-19 zoonotic origins hypothesis…EcoHealth was in optimal position to assist with research into the COVID-19 origins due to its pre-pandemic work in Wuhan, China, but instead of contributing to the efforts, it obstructed the U.S. Government’s investigation through its refusal to provide documents, statements, research materials and unpublished bat coronavirus specimen data… The State Department must explain its participation in this event when the evidence uncovered so far, including the State Department Fact Sheet, weighs in favor of a laboratory origin of COVID-19. We seek an explanation about the State Department’s senior official’s participation in this joint panel and importantly, of this new science that has not publicly been sanctioned by any government agency…”
The Senators requested an answer to their letter by January 5, 2023. You may click HERE to read their full letter to Secretary Blinken.
