COVID-19 pandemic 'likely' originated with Chinese lab leak, Senate Republican report finds

A Senate committee's Republican-led report into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic found it "likely" originated in a research-related incident.

"While precedent of previous outbreaks of human infections from contact with animals favors the hypothesis that a natural zoonotic spillover is responsible for the origin of SARS-CoV-2, the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 that resulted in the COVID-19 pandemic was most likely the result of a research-related incident," the report's introduction reads. "This conclusion is not intended to be dispositive. The lack of transparency from government and public health officials in the PRC with respect to the origins of SARS-CoV-2 prevents reaching a more definitive conclusion." Julia Musto is a reporter for Fox News and Fox Business Digital. 

In a release, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, of which Burr is ranking member, says there is "substantial evidence" suggesting that this was the cause of the pandemic, and that a research-related incident is consistent with early epidemiology showing the spread of the virus in the same district as the Wuhan Institute of Virology.