Republican Senators reportedly demanded the records on the Wuhan Laboratory and gain-of-function experiments from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Red State said the said senators, lead by Wisconsin's Ron Johnson, written a letter to the said government agencies since the publicly-released emails on Dr. Anthony Fauci reveal his knowledge on the gain-of-function research that the Wuhan Institute of Virology scientists were conducting.
"These agencies have a lot of explaining to do about their handling of COVID-19. That's why we've written to @NIHDirector @SecBecerra to see what's behind the redactions in their emails," Johnson announced on Twitter Tuesday evening.
In addition, the Washington Examiner reported that Johnson is joined by Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, Oklahoma Senator James Lankford, and Florida Senator Rick Scott. The Washington Examiner said the copy of the letter the senators sent them demanded answers to the so many questions on the NIH's handling of COVID-19 and on the "virus' origins."
In the letter, the senators cited they are acting in line with being members of the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that is conducting an investigation on it. The letter is addressed to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and NIH Director Francis Collins.
"We, as members of the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, write to request documents regarding the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The recent release of approximately 4,000 pages of NIH email communications and other documents from early 2020 has raised serious questions about NIH's handling of COVID-19," the senators said in opening the letter.
"The recent release of approximately 4,000 pages of NIH email communications and other documents from early 2020 has raised serious questions about NIH's handling of COVID-19," the senators continued.
"Between June 1 and June 4, 2021, the news media and public interest groups released approximately 4,000 pages of NIH emails and other documents these organizations received through Freedom of Information Act requests," they added. "These documents, though heavily redacted, have shed new light on NIH's awareness of the virus' origins in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic."
The letter also pointed out several instances from the emails of Fauci that show his actual knowledge on the source of the virus and on the gain-of-function research the Wuhan Laboratory is conducting that his office is funding.
However, since the emails that were released publicly were incomplete and had many redactions, the senators demanded for a "complete and unredacted copies of all documents and communications responsive" to what media outlets Washington Post and others have requested based on the Freedom of Information Act.
An investigation last March revealed that Fauci was linked to the Wuhan laboratory experiment but these were denied, especially recently along allegedly downplaying the leakage theory on it again.
Former U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo last May raised the coverup on the matter by President Joe Biden's scientists, pointing out that he himself saw the evidence that the COVID-19 virus actually leaked from the Wuhan laboratory.
