Dingell criticizes partisanship on COVID origins: 'No one definitely knows'
During a House select subcommittee hearing on the origins of COVID-19, Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., warned against the intense partisanship over the issue, saying that it could hinder efforts to combat the next pandemic. Dingell also acknowledged the unsettled science on the origins of COVID-19, saying that “no one definitely knows” how it started.
Video transcript
DEBBIE DINGELL: Unfortunately, discussions, debates, and investigations in this country have become highly politicized in every arena. OK, in the Congress we expect it. But I hope we can minimize it on this committee because I am worried about the next virus that's already out there. We're reading about them popping up everywhere right now. And I think we all want to be prepared.
What worries me the most is what's happening in the scientific community, where exchanging of ideas, researched and shared data has found clues, discovered cures, reached consensus. And this arena is becoming so highly politicized between virologists and researchers, public health officials, national security experts, and, oh, yes, the politicians that I think we're in trouble.
To quote "The Wall Street Journal" this morning, "These divisions and a lack of transparency from Beijing have hobbled efforts to determine how the virus first infected humans." I hope our committee can work together to address that.
So today, I want to focus on a couple of things, I think we can all agree on and raise a couple of other issues. First, China has not been forthcoming. I think all three witnesses would agree to that. And I think everybody on this panel would agree to that.
I strongly echo my colleagues' calls from both sides of the aisle that we need greater transparency from the Chinese Communist Party regarding the Wuhan Institute of Virology, especially if we want to prevent further pandemics. And the further we get away, the more complicated it becomes.
Second, here's a reality. With respect to our witnesses, I do not believe that we have certainty in either direction as to how this virus started. Lots of us have opinions. Lord knows how many papers have been written, intelligence investigations undertaken, studies abound. And as we've heard today, some are firmly in the camp that it was a lab leak. Some say it appears to be a zoonotic transmission from an animal. I've been up endless nights. I'm not a scientist, but trying to study it, talk to people. But I think, here's a fact, no one definitely knows.
A report by the Senate Republicans that was released yesterday on the pandemic's origins said, to quote, "After 18 months of research, the team that worked on the Senate report acknowledged it was unable to definitely pinpoint the source of the pandemic," which has killed-- everybody here has talked about the million Americans. But it's killed 6.9 million people worldwide. We should all be worried about this and want to stop the next one.
