House Committee Calls Author of Scientific Paper to Testify on COVID Lab Leak Theory

Subcommittee Demands Private Messages of Scientist in COVID-19 Lab Leak Study

The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic has issued a subpoena demanding the private messages of Dr. Kristian Andersen regarding a research study aimed at disproving the COVID-19 lab leak theory.

Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) announced the issuance of the subpoena for documents and communications from Andersen’s Slack messaging channel.

This subpoena is related to an academic paper titled “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” which Andersen co-authored and published in Nature Medicine in March 2020. The paper asserts that the virus has a natural origin.

Andersen, a virologist at the Scripps Research Institute, testified before the subcommittee on June 16 that he and the co-authors primarily communicated through Slack while working on the paper.

During the hearing, Andersen admitted that he had not provided all relevant messages to the subcommittee because not all participants in the Slack channel, which he privately owned, approved of their release.

Wenstrup stated that the subpoena was issued to compel the production of Andersen’s Slack messages regarding the drafting, publication, and critical reception of the academic article and the origins of COVID-19.

“We are following the breadcrumbs of a COVID-19 cover-up straight to the source,” said Wenstrup in a press release.

“Andersen played a pivotal role in potentially suppressing the lab leak hypothesis, and Americans deserve to know why this happened, who was involved, and how we can prevent the intentional suppression of scientific discourse during a future pandemic,” he added.

Wenstrup also raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest among the authors who supported a zoonotic origin of COVID-19.

A copy of the subpoena reveals that Andersen is required to provide all Slack documents and communications from Jan. 1, 2020, to June 23, 2023, regarding the origins of COVID-19, which may reference Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, among others.

Fauci’s Alleged Role in Study Drafting

The subcommittee released a memo (pdf) on March 5 revealing new email evidence suggesting that Fauci “prompted” the drafting of the study.

The memo describes a conference call between Collins, Fauci, and other scientists in early February 2020, shortly after the first case of the novel coronavirus was confirmed in the United States.

According to the memo, Collins, Fauci, and others were alerted during the Feb. 1, 2020, call about the possibility of a lab leak from Wuhan, China, in late 2019.

Citing internal emails, the committee claims that Fauci influenced Andersen to write the paper with the intention of disproving any lab leak theory.

The abstract of the Proximal Origin paper suggests that the virus may have originated from Malaysia pangolins due to the presence of coronaviruses similar to SARS-CoV. The paper implies that this indicates a likely transmission to humans.

However, the March 5 memo…