CLASSIFIED intelligence on the origins of Covid may finally be released if Donald Trump wins the US election, America’s top virologist has said.
Dr Robert Redfield, 73, the former chief of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has long believed Covid leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China during risky research.
APDonald Trump, centre, pictured with former CDC chief Dr Robert Redfield (right) and Anthony Fauci (left)[/caption]
APSecurity personnel outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology during a visit by the World Health Organisation in 2021[/caption]
AFPChinese virologist Shi Zhengli at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan[/caption]
Nearly five years after the first Covid cases emerged and with more than 20 million dead, the world still has no answers about the origins of the pandemic.
As US voters head to the polls, Dr Redfield, who led the CDC when the outbreak began in 2020, believes a Trump win will “absolutely” turn the tide.
He hopes the former US president will declassify key intelligence on the origins, and push for a full investigation – with China’s cooperation.
Speaking to The Sun at his Maryland home, Dr Redfield said: “We can actually have a real investigation with subpoena power.
“I think we’ll be closer to the answer.
“And I think China will eventually be a partner in that decision.”
In the early days of 2020, Dr Redfield was in the White House’s Oval Room with Trump.
The pair begged Chinese president Xi Jinping to let the US bring in a team to investigate the mystery virus that we now know as Covid-19.
But China refused, and Dr Redfield believes this decision immediately put the US on the back-foot in terms of uncovering the origins – and halting the spread of the virus.
Last year, US President Joe Biden signed a bill asking for intelligence on the origins of Covid and the Wuhan Institute of Virology to be declassified.
Months later, a mere 10-page report was released – revealing that US intelligence agencies are divided on the origins and do not know how the pandemic started.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said all agencies of “continue to assess that both a natural and laboratory-associated origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection”.
The report shed little light on the origins – and some Republicans accused the Biden administration is wrongly withholding classified information.
Other former Trump administration officials believe he will push for a fuller investigation to uncover clues on the origins.
Rep Brad Wenstrup, chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, told The Sun: “I think whoever gets in the white House come January, it’ll make a difference.
“I think the Trump administration would look into this further.
“I haven’t seen really much interest from the current administration – especially when you did a 90-day commission that had virtually no answers and wasn’t done very scientifically.”
We can actually have a real investigation with subpoena power. I think we’ll be closer to the answer
Dr Robert Redfield
The Select Subcommittee’s final report will be released in November – expected to “reveal evidence uncovered during numerous investigations”, including on the origins of the virus.
Rep Wenstrup said: “Although this report will come out after voting has occurred, the result of the election will not change the findings of the report.
“We have worked tirelessly over the last two years to follow the facts wherever they might lead us.
“I trust that our investigation into the origins of Covid-19 – with our discovered facts and forensics – will lead to continued questioning and demanding of Chinese accountability.”
FUNDING SUSPENSION
Earlier this year, the US government suspended funding to a firm at the centre of the storm over the origins of Covid.
EcoHealth Alliance, a New York-based non-profit, has been under fire since the early days of the pandemic over its bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The group has faced scrutiny over whether Covid may have emerged from the research at the lab that was funded by the US government.
And in May, the US Department of Health and Human Services told EcoHealth Alliance that it was suspended from receiving government funds.
Grants from US agencies, including National Institutes of Heath, make up most of EcoHealth Alliance’s budget – which was about $14million in 2022.
But last year, a government investigation found the organisation had “mismanaged” grants in Wuhan.
It revealed a failure to monitor a risky coronavirus experiment, failure to obtain lab notebooks from the Wuhan lab and a delayed report describing research in the months before the pandemic.
The funding suspension came after The Sun revealed the US government had dished out some $60million of public money to the organisation since the start of the pandemic – despite questions still raging over its work at the Wuhan lab.
And they have continued to collect and test hundreds of samples of bat coronaviruses since 2020 with US government funding.
The suspension of funding was welcomed by lawmakers investigating the origins of Covid.
It marked a significant development in the investigation that The Sun has been covering for the last four years.
How do the US presidential elections work?
BY Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
The Democratic and Republican parties nominate their candidates with a series of votes – called state primaries and caucuses – in the run up to the election in November, held every four years.
This gives members the opportunity to choose who they want to lead the party into an election – this year, Donald Trump and following Biden’s resignation, Kamala Harris.
There are also some independent candidates running for president – arguably the most well-known was Robert F Kennedy Jr who pulled out in August and endorsed Trump.
In US elections the winner is not the candidate who gets the most votes across the country.
Instead Trump and Harris will compete to win smaller contests held in each of the 50 states.
Many of the states often vote the same way – but seven of them – Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona – tend to go in either direction.
Each state has a number of electoral college votes – partly based on population sizes – with a total of 538 across the country up for grabs.
The winner is the candidate that gets 270 or more, marking a majority in the electoral college.
All but two of the US’ 50 states – Maine and Nebraska – have a winner-takes-all rule.
Meaning whichever candidate gets the highest number of votes wins all of the state’s electoral college votes.
In 2016 Hillary Clinton won more votes nationally than Donald Trump – but she still lost the election because of electoral college votes.
The candidate who will win this election is the one who secures 270 or more college ballots.
Usually the winner is declared on the night, but it can take days to finalise the result.
In 2020 Joe Biden wasn’t officially announced as the president-elect until November 7.
The new president will be sworn into office in January on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington DC.
APDr Robert Redfield – who was head of CDC during the pandemic – believes Covid leaked from a lab in China[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
