Republicans have continued to sound the alarm signaling that the coronavirus may not have been developed naturally.
On Monday, several GOP congressmen and former Trump administration officials responded to a Wall Street Journal report published a day earlier. The report alleged three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology came down with symptoms similar to COVID-19 in November 2019. This occurred just before the coronavirus broke out to other parts of Wuhan and became a global pandemic.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) encouraged Americans to use common sense while claiming it would be a remarkable coincidence if the virus naturally started near the lab, which has a history of testing coronaviruses. Additionally, former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb said this is consistent with State Department data and a growing body of evidence pointing to the lab as a possible ground zero.
Gottlieb also urged naysayers to open their minds to these reports while arguing the speculation behind the virus beginning from an animal is beginning to look less likely as more information emerges.
“Maybe a year ago that kind of statement made a lot of sense because that were the more likely scenario, but we haven’t found the intermediate host,” he stated. “We found no evidence of this virus in an animal or anywhere…we haven’t found the true source of the virus.”