Despite claims by the scientific community, a probe on COVID origins that was launched by the Trump administration yielded no proof that it was of a zoonotic nature.
A former State Secretary Mike Pompeo-led probe on the origins of COVID found no evidence that the coronavirus came from bats or nature, an ex State Department official by the name of David Asher revealed. The investigation, which was carried out by the State Department's arms control and verification (AVC) bureau, was led by Pompeo and was subsequently shut down by the Biden administration this year.
"We were finding that despite the claims of our scientific community, including the National Institutes of Health and Dr. Fauci's NIAID organization, there was almost no evidence that supported a natural, zoonotic evolution or source of COVID-19," Asher told FOX News' "America Reports."
Asher served as the lead contractor on the Pompeo-led probe, which investigated two main hypotheses on the origins of COVID, including natural origins and the Wuhan lab leak theory that lately has once again gained traction despite being dismissed last year. The former state official argued, "The data disproportionately stacked up as we investigated that it was coming out of a lab or some supernatural source."
Asher, who has worked on investigating North Korea's nuclear program called the AQ Khan network as well as Al Qaeda leaders, has expressed his distrust of former Assistant Secretary of State Chris Ford, who was critical of the Wuhan lab leak theory. Ford claims that the Pompeo-led probe by the AVC wasn't disclosed to him and had in fact bypassed department and intelligence community biological experts. He did, however, admit that the Wuhab lab leak theory was "very possible."
The Wuhan Institute of Virology is now at the center of controversy following a bombshell report by the Wall Street Journal after it showed several of its researchers getting sick with COVID-like symptoms and needing hospital care as early as November 2019, months before the COVID pandemic was declared. Asher claims that the Wuhan lab was the "epicenter of synthetic biology in the People's Republic of China, and they were up to some very hairy stuff with synthetic biology and so-called gain-of-function techniques."
The gain of function research is the very same research that White House adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci has denied being involved in despite reports that the Wuhan lab received U.S. federal funding through a non-profit called EcoHealth Alliance.
Just yesterday, the Pompeo-led probe on COVID origins was announced to have been shut down by the Biden administration. However, President Joe Biden is looking to launch his administration's own investigation.
According to ABC News, the president has ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to "redouble their efforts" in investigating COVID origins, including "specific questions for China." A report to determine whether COVID came from human contact with an infected animal or from a lab leak was ordered by Biden earlier this month, but turned out to be "inconclusive."
President Biden has ordered a second report due in 90 days to deliver a more "definitive conclusion."
