Senator Marshall Demands Answers on the Origins of Covid-19 in Senate Committee Hearing

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. continued to demand accountability and transparency from the federal government on its actions related to COVID-19, the virus that killed over one million Americans. Yesterday, during the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Senate Committee hearing on COVID-19’s origins, Senator Marshall emphasized the Chinese Communist Party’s involvement and military presence at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the likely origin of the virus. 

You may click HERE or on the image above to watch Senator Marshall’s full questioning. 

Highlights from Senator Marshall’s questioning include:

Senator Marshall: First of all, it’s important to remember why we’re here today. We’re here today because we don’t want to have another pandemic like this. I think it’s important that we recognize that a million Americans have lost a loved one, and they’re still looking for closure. We have 15 million Americans with long Covid. And perhaps if we knew the origin of Covid, and the development, maybe that would give us a clue how to treat us.

On the odds of Covid-19 naturally occuring: 

Senator Marshall: I want to start with Dr. Quay and go back to the DEFUSE grant for just a second. This is a grant by EcoHealth. And Peter Daszak, recall that Peter Daszak is David Morens’ BFF. And that grant was denied, but yet it lays out a framework for the development of Covid-19, and you went through six or seven, several reasons that are absolutely consistent…What are the chances of all those things ending up in a Covid virus? 

Dr. Quay: Yeah, well, again, just as a reminder, so they said they were going to go to a particular spot in Southern China to get a virus. They were going to make sure that it had diversity from SARS 1, of about 25%. They were going to put it into humanized mice to enhance its ability to recognize the receptor binding domain. They’re going to put the cleavage site in a very particular spot. You know, out of 13,000 letters in the spike protein, they said in the grant, that they’re going to put it at a spot called the S1/S2 junction, and so all of those were found in SARS-CoV-2. Its nearest neighbor’s from the same area. It has a 99% binding affinity for the human receptor. SARS-1 jumped into humans, it only had 15% of the epidemic changes it needed to become epidemic…I’ve quantified it because I like statistics, and it’s 1 in 1.2 billion.

On gain-of-function research for bioweapons development: 

Senator Marshall: So really, this ORF-8 is a synthetic link sequence, never found in nature…They place this link in here for the purposes of the two cardinal sins – the cardinal sin of asymptomatic virus, and then transmission without that symptom as well, and the inability to make an immune response…What purpose would there be, if you’re wanting to develop a vaccines? Is there any civilian purpose, or is this in fact a bioweapon?”

Dr. Quay: I can’t say it’s a bioweapon, because that’s in the mind of the person that made it, but it is highly unusual, highly synthetic. They were doing synthetic biology around it, and its two functions are quite remarkable with respect to what kind of research you would do in the civilian world.

Senator Marshall: But is there a possibility that it could have been a dual purpose, that it could have been used as a bioweapon?

Dr. Ebright: So the original SARS virus, SARS-CoV-1, is a tier one select agent in the United States. So it is in the group of pathogens and biological toxins that our federal government has identified as having high potential for use as a bioweapon in biowarfare, bioterrorism, or biocrime. It by definition, therefore, according to our federal government, is a bioweapon agent. It is not a bioweapon, but it is an agent that potentially could be used. 

Senator Marshall: Is there any good use, any good reason to put this in the virus, if you’re developing a vaccine? 

Dr. Ebright: I would return to my general comment on gain-of-function research on potential pandemic pathogens. That research has no civilian practical application. Researchers undertake it because it is fast, it is easy, it requires no specialized equipment or skills, and it was prioritized for funding, and has been prioritized for publication by scientific journals. These are major incentives to researchers worldwide in China and in the U.S. researchers undertake this research because it’s easy, they get the money and they can get the papers. 

On the role of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in the Covid-19 coverup: 

Senator Marshall: I want to go down this ODNI route for just a second. It’s a fact that the ODNI has not complied with the law. Congress has passed legislation to declassify information related to Covid origins, and ODNI has not complied. Leaving ODNI in charge ensures a total monitoring control of the information – the misinformation – that’s why we have to move this investigation outside of the ODNI. Additionally, it’s the fact that our current grant research process hides the ultimate beneficiaries of U.S. grants and research, and bypasses all export controls. All of that has to be changed. This is why we needed a 9/11 style investigation outside of cameras, outside of the politics here on Capitol Hill, to find out where this virus came from. What did the U.S. do to contribute? And how do we keep this from happening again? 

On the heavy involvement of the CCP at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV): 

Senator Marshall: Dr. Quay, I want to go back to some line of questions we were going down earlier… I think that there’s a naivety upon Americans to think that the Chinese military is in one place doing research and, and the WIV is doing research, and the CCP is not involved. What’s it like to work in labs in Wuhan, the interaction between the CCP and those entities? What does their day usually start with?

Dr. Quay: Well, I think one of the telling ways to see that without visiting them is to go through the minutes of laboratory meetings, which you can get a hold of…And unlike laboratory meetings in the U.S. – which are pretty much, you start by presenting your data, your journals, your data – they start with a recitation of what the Communist Party’s missions are with respect to their position in the world and the role of their research…and these are by Communist Party members who are part of every lab meeting, present, and then they finally start talking about the research at the end of the lab, but not at the beginning.

Senator Marshall: And the military takes over the WIV in December, as well to promote the cover up. What is the interaction between the Chinese military and the WIV scientists? 

Dr. Quay: So the woman that took over was the one that was most responsible for the response to the SARS-1. And interestingly, if you look at the closest viruses to SARS CoV-2, so you got our RaTG-13, which is inside the WIV. You’ve got the BANAL viruses from Laos, we know the WIV is sampling there. The next one down are two viruses that were collected by the PLA army, and began studying in 2017. The S2 region of the spike protein is almost identical to those viruses that were originally collected by the PLA army. The first genetic cluster of patients that have both Lineage A and Lineage B were in the PLA hospital three kilometers from the WIV.

On the dangers of funding foreign adversaries’ gain-of-function research: 

Senator Marshall: You know, I think we’ve debated back and forth about the benefits and risks of viral gain-of-function research. And I’m just gonna say viral manipulation, so we don’t have to worry about silly definitions that are used to obscure what’s really happening here…Do you feel comfortable funding any type of viral manipulation research with foreign entities that are hostile towards America like the CCP, Dr. Ebright?

Dr. Ebright: I think there are strong reasons for international collaboration in science with both allied nations and adversary nations. However, there’s a line that never should be crossed, and that is research that has weapons implications, and research on discovery and enhancement of bioweapons agents, like the research on SARS viruses in Wuhan, most surely is an example of such research.