{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://guest.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-guest-joins-letter-calling-investigation-covid-19s-origins", "Congressman Guest Joins Letter Calling for Investigation Into COVID-19\u2019s Origins", "2021-06-07", "2021", "2021-06", "Republican", "House", "MS", "Michael Guest", "G000591", "guest.house.gov", "guest", "https://guest.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Congressman Michael Guest (MS-03) recently joined more than 200 of his House Republican colleagues in sending a letter to Speaker Pelosi calling for her to direct the appropriate Democratic Committee Chairs to investigate the origins of COVID-19. The letter follows a report by the Wall Street Journal revealing that three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology displayed COVID-19-like symptoms in November of 2019, which has revitalized calls for a probe to further examine the possibility that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab.\n\nThe letter also calls for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to be held accountable for its role in the origins of COVID-19. The letter specifically notes House Democrats' concerning statements and legislative agenda, which have not focused on ensuring the CCP is held accountable for its role in COVID-19, and contrasts that to statements from officials in the Biden Administration demonstrating their interest in learning about the virus's origins and the need for an independent investigation. The letter reinforces the need for Congressional action on this matter, as the World Health Organization's report released on March 30, 2021, is not trustworthy, given the CCP's role in the development of the study.\n\nRead the full text of the letter here or below:\n\nDear Speaker Pelosi,\n\nWe request that you instruct the appropriate Democrat committee chairs to immediately join Republican calls to hold the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) accountable for its role in causing the global COVID-19 pandemic. There is mounting evidence the pandemic started in a Chinese lab, and the CCP covered it up. If that is the case, the CCP is responsible for the deaths of almost 600,000 Americans and millions more worldwide. These questions about the CCP's liability are not a diversion, as you falsely claimed. To the contrary, every American family that lost someone deserves answers about the origin of this terrible virus, and House Democrats' ongoing refusal to allocate investigative resources to get those answers is an affront to them.\n\nRepeatedly, House Republicans called for a full investigation to address the CCP's complicity in obscuring the origins of COVID-19. Repeatedly, our requests were ignored. Instead, House Democrats pursued a radical left-wing agenda that is pushing the economy toward the highest inflation rates since 1979. Indeed, in March 2020, Democrat Whip James Clyburn set the tone when he told House Democrats the pandemic represented \"a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.\" Now, more than one year later, Democrats have a record of pushing partisan extremist priorities with no connection to COVID-19 relief, while alarmingly shielding the CCP from scrutiny. After more than a year of inaction in light of mounting evidence against the CCP, it raises serious questions as to why House Democrats continue to cover for the CCP's lies and obfuscation.\n\nThe CCP admitted to \"firmly oppos[ing] certain countries' attempts to . . . hold China accountable.\" House Republicans have rejected the CCP's position with respect to cooperating with an outside investigation. As Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan said back on July 2, 2020, \"[I]f [the CCP] had told us earlier, lots more people would be alive today in our country and around the world. [But] for some reason, the majority doesn't want to look at that fundamental issue.\" To hold the CCP accountable, however, we need access to the full range of tools available to congressional investigators, including subpoenas for documents and the power to compel key witnesses to give testimony. To date, Democrat committee chairs throughout the House are refusing to allocate those resources for questioning about the origins of the COVID-19 virus.\n\nThis investigation is more urgent now considering the recent report that, according to U.S. intelligence sources, three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) became ill and sought hospital care in November 2019, a full month before the CCP publicly reported any COVID-19 cases. Although House Democrats have been mum on this new evidence, it certainly got the attention of the Biden Administration, which appears to share the concerns of House Republicans about the CCP's role in the pandemic. For instance, a spokesperson for the National Security Council said, \"[w]e continue to have serious questions about the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, including its origins within the [CCP].\" The calls for a full and complete investigation of the CCP's role, however, are not limited to President Biden's National Security Council:\n\nSecretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra said, \"we have to understand how COVID-19 surfaced, we have to understand how it spread so we can try to make sure we are prepared for next time\" and \"[a] COVID origins study must be launched\u2026to fully assess the source of the virus and the early days of the outbreak.\"\n\nChief Medical Advisor to President Biden Dr. Anthony Fauci, when asked if he was confident COVID-19 developed naturally, said, \"no actually, I am not convinced about that, I think we should . . . investigate what went on in China.\"\n\nFinding answers to the questions that Secretary Beccera and Dr. Fauci raised will be difficult. The CCP has made it clear that key evidence is not forthcoming. In fact, since the beginning of the pandemic, the CCP has proactively misled the world about COVID-19. One of the possible origins, the WIV, has never shared any raw data, safety logs, or lab records on its work pertaining to coronaviruses.\n\nThis follows a similar pattern of deception by the CCP for the past year. The CCP has:\n\ncoordinated with health officials to conceal the origins and spread of COVID-19;\n\nled propaganda campaigns to pass the blame for COVID-19 to other countries, including the United States;\n\nsilenced and censored COVID-19 whistleblowers, researchers, physicians, and scientists;\n\nthreatened U.S. elected officials, including Members of the House; and\n\nexpelled American journalists.\n\nIt is also clear the World Health Organization (WHO) is not up to the task of investigating these questions. On May 19, 2020, member nations directed the WHO to \"identify the . . . source\" of COVID-19. On March 30, 2021, the WHO released a report that was undermined by the CCP's ability to influence the underlying investigation. The CCP had full veto power over inclusion of American scientists; vetoed the three Americans put forward by the U.S. government; designed the mission's itinerary and refused access to Chinese scientists and raw data; and had full power to edit and alter the final report.\n\nThe WHO's inability to conduct a review that yielded meaningful findings makes the need for a bipartisan congressional investigation more acute. The concerns about the WHO's investigation are not isolated to House Republicans\u2014several Biden Administration officials raised similar questions about the reliability of the WHO's report and called for an independent investigation:\n\nChief Medical Advisor to President Biden Dr. Anthony Fauci said, \"[t]here was a lot of restrictions on the ability of the people who went there to really take a look . . . [I] have some considerable concerns about that.\"\n\nAfter the WHO said a laboratory accident was \"extremely unlikely,\" Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said, \"that is not [the Biden Administration's] assessment.\"\n\nSecretary of State Antony Blinken stated, \"[w]e've got real concerns about the methodology and the process that went into [the WHO] report, including the fact that the government in Beijing apparently helped write it.\"\n\nIt is clear the WHO failed to produce the final word on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the CCP's liability. That task falls to us in Congress. House Republicans have consistently called on you to uncover this truth. It is time you join this battle.\n\nWe hope House Democrats will abandon their partisan agenda and join House Republicans' investigation into the origins of COVID-19. This is one of the most important questions we face. Thank you for your attention to this urgent request\n\nCongressman Michael Guest represents Mississippi's Third Congressional District. Currently serving his second term, Congressman Guest is a member of the Committee on Homeland Security, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and the Committee on Ethics.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:57:00Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://guest.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-guest-joins-letter-calling-investigation-covid-19s-origins"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.761992996558547, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}