Is this report really the “final” word on COVID, the pandemic, and the response?

Probably not. However, it is an important document, because it contains and preserves the documents that Congress was able to get, and records the actions – both good and very, very bad – of those in positions of power who influenced how the COVID pandemic was handled. Especially because Anthony Fauci is making his own attempt to rewrite his response to COVID (of course, nothing bad is EVER his fault).

This report, though, is 525 pages long (the PDF actually says 557 pages, but the first 37 pages are the cover and the table of contents). The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (a subcommittee under the House Oversight Committee) was chaired by Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), who is a physician (podiatrist) himself. The subcommittee’s X account helpfully linked to both the report (which can be read in its 525 page totality here), but also put out several tweets summarizing their findings.

The report opens with a list of questions that the subcommittee decided to pursue, followed by summary of their findings and answers to those questions.

During a time of intense partisanship, the Select Subcommittee had bipartisan consensus across multiple topics.

1) The possibility that COVID-19 emerged because of a laboratory or research accident is not a conspiracy theory.

2) EcoHealth Alliance, Inc., and Dr. Peter Daszak should never again receive U.S. taxpayer dollars.

3) Scientific messaging must be clear and concise, backed by evidentiary support, and come from trusted messengers, such as front-line doctors treating patients.

4) Public health officials must work to regain American’s trust; Americans want to be educated, not indoctrinated.

5) Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo participated in medical malpractice and publicly covered up the total number of nursing home fatalities in New York.

In addition to these notable bipartisan successes, the Select Subcommittee developed extensive findings, some of which include:

1) The U.S. National Institutes of Health funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

2) The Chinese government, agencies within the U.S. Government, and some members of the international scientific community sought to cover-up facts concerning the origins of the pandemic.

3) Operation Warp Speed was a tremendous success and a model to build upon in the future. The vaccines, which are now probably better characterized as therapeutics, undoubtedly saved millions of lives by diminishing likelihood of severe disease and death.

4) Rampant fraud, waste, and abuse plagued the COVID-19 pandemic response.

5) Pandemic-era school closures will have enduring impact on generations of America’s children and these closures were enabled by groups meant to serve those children.

6) The Constitution cannot be suspended in times of crisis and restrictions on freedoms sow distrust in public health.

7) The prescription cannot be worse than the disease, such as strict and overly broad lockdowns that led to predictable anguish and avoidable consequences.

Reading this summary of findings should give us all a chill. We LIVED through all of this. We were told “15 Days To Slow The Spread,” which turned into “30 Days,” which turned into forever for some extremely mentally unstable people. We lived through school lockdowns, were told that “kids are resilient” and other such bullshit, and that teachers would die if they had to go back into the classroom. We lost thousands of our beloved elderly family members due to horrific mismanagment of nursing homes and social isolation. We were told to sacrifice and stay home so our betters could eat at the French Laundry and go get their hair done at the salon.

And no one has ever been held fully accountable. The only court that has passed any judgment on the players involved is the court of public opinion. Will this report change any of that? It’s doubtful. At this point, the re-election of Donald Trump, and his cleaning house at several different federal agencies that had a hand in making all our lives miserable during the COVID pandemic, may be the only justice we get. That, and possibly the political shunning and potential prosecution of Andrew Cuomo.

Remember how mentioning that COVID could be from a lab leak would get you in trouble with Facebook? The subcommittee presents evidence that COVID was the result of a lab leak – and points the finger directly at EcoHealth Alliance and Dr. Peter Daszak. This is a doozy that directly refutes what Anthony Fauci is trying to push, and has continually tried to promote, since COVID-19 broke onto the scene.

The Congress of the United States officially states that an accident in a lab most likely killed 28 million people. https://t.co/RN9pQx8cpu

— Matt Ridley (@mattwridley) December 3, 2024

The basis for the subscommittee’s conclusion can be found on pages 38 through 41, detailing that the mysterious sickness was active in the fall of 2019, before it was “found” at the Wuhan wet market – pointing out on page 41 that no animal at the market has ever been tested and found to be an infected carrier for the virus. The report also finds that the NIH did not properly oversee the grant money that EcoHealth was given, which went straight to gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (which was known to have lab safety issues). The report also notes that NIH employees Dr. David Morens and Marge Moore actively worked to “evade federal record keeping laws.” Morens, in particular, is singled out for allegedly lying to Congress.

COVID-19 OVERSIGHT NONCOMPLIANCE

The Biden Administration repeatedly obstructed @COVIDSelect's investigations.

Dr. Fauci’s Senior Advisor — Dr. David Morens — violated multiple @NIH policies and likely lied to Congress. READ MORE⬇️ pic.twitter.com/rqITzxn400

— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) December 2, 2024

Remember how hard Anthony Fauci was pushing the “natural origin” theory of COVID – all to divert anyone from looking at the money that had gone from NIH to EcoHealth Alliance to the Wuhan lab. This single finding alone should make everyone grateful that Dr. Jay Bhattacharya will likely be the next head of the NIH.

This report is all well and fine and good, but the American people are now more distrustful of public health officials and government in general. That’s not necessarily a BAD thing, but this level of gaslighting and deception within the federal bureaucracy – the “Deep State” – means that there is just a general distrust of ANY government entity. And while we could all do with less government interference in our lives, this country does exist under a social compact. We pay our taxes and fund the government to work for us, and that means the government works FOR us. During COVID, the federal bureaucracy seized its opportunity to control us. Trust was lost, and it may not ever return. We shall have to see what the reaction to this report will be, and how the incoming Trump administration appointees proceed with cleaning house.

Featured image via Alexandra_Koch on Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license