As China Holds the Unvaccinated Accountable, Who Will Hold China Accountable for COVID-19?

A child receives a nucleic acid test for COVID-19 in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, on Aug. 5, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Commentary

As the Chinese regime holds unvaccinated people accountable, who will hold the regime accountable for the COVID-19 pandemic? After all, the virus, which almost certainly emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China, has claimed the lives of more than 4.49 million people worldwide.

How many more people must die before we get an admission of guilt from Beijing?

In 2020, researchers in Wuhan deleted more than 200 virus samples from a public database hosted by the United States National Library of Medicine, a wing of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Why did they delete those samples? Why did the NIH allow them to be deleted? So many questions, very few answers.

In an interview with Wired magazine, Alina Chan, a researcher at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, called Wuhan activity “suspicious.” One of the more vocal critics of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) duplicity, Chan asked the following: If the samples were removed for innocuous reasons, then why wouldn’t the CCP “respond to people who reached out and said, ‘What did you do with the data?’”

In May 2020, Chan co-authored a rather interesting paper discussing the manner in which the virus “was already pre-adapted to human transmission.” The “sudden appearance of a highly infectious SARS-CoV-2 ... should motivate stronger international efforts to identify the source and prevent near future re-emergence,” he wrote.

Fifteen months on from the paper, we’re no closer to getting an admission of guilt from the CCP. Although President Biden recently rebuked China for refusing to cooperate with a U.S. investigation into the origins of the virus, strongly worded statements won’t get us any closer to the truth.

In a recent commentary piece for Nature, members of the World Health Organization (WHO) said the “window of opportunity for conducting this crucial inquiry is closing fast.” Any delay “will render some of the studies biologically impossible.” Interestingly, Dr. Peter Daszak, a man I’ve discussed previously, is one of the contributing authors. Daszak, you may recall, was quick to dismiss the lab-leak hypothesis. Such misinformed thinking was “political, not scientific,” he argued.

Nevertheless, according to the authors, when it comes to determining the origins of the virus, we’re now at a “critical juncture.” With each passing day, the chances of a unified, scientific consensus become less and less likely. Of course, that’s the CCP’s plan. As time runs out, the chances of such a consensus arriving are extremely slim, especially now that the CCP is busy pushing its own virus origin narrative.

The United States, not China, is responsible for the virus, according to Beijing. It’s not, and everyone knows that this lie is little more than a desperate attempt to distract people from the truth. Again, though, calling the regime dishonest gets us no closer to an answer. What are we, the people, to do if the CCP continues to act in such a deceitful manner? It’s simple: We should call on our elected officials to do something meaningful. Action must be taken, and it must be taken immediately. However, the question is, what sort of action is necessary?

The Power of Congress

Paul D. Thacker, a U.S. journalist who specializes in science, medicine, and environmental reporting, wrote that “Congress has the authority to investigate how the pandemic started.” To do that, however, “it must find the will to get answers that more and more Americans are demanding.” With 651,000 Americans dead, the very least people can do is demand answers. To get to the truth, Thacker put forward a few suggestions.

First, “Congress has a constitutional obligation to gather answers itself.” With its “broad investigatory powers,” the NIH must be made to “disclose documents about its funding for controversial gain-of-function research and grants provided to EcoHealth Alliance.”

“EcoHealth has provided around $600,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Thacker wrote.

Second, according to the investigative journalist, “the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package,” allows for investigations into “the pandemic’s origin.” CARES includes “the office of a Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery, a Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, and a Congressional Oversight Commission.”

Although they “have slightly different tasks, related to monitoring the monies provided under CARES,” all three entities “have the authority to investigate how the pandemic started.” Congress, as Thacker wrote, “should demand they do so.” If that fails, “Congress could call for a 9/11 Commission-style examination of the pandemic’s origin.”

Philip Zelikow, former executive director of the 9/11 Commission, has already launched a highly ambitious national commission to investigate the pandemic’s origins. Whether the commission proves to be successful remains to be seen.

Answers are needed; justice must be served. The Chinese regime must be made to pay for a virus that has inflicted unfathomable levels of misery across the globe. First, however, Congress must seize the initiative.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.