House Covid-19 panel releases final report criticizing public health response to the pandemic

CNN — A Republican-led House committee investigating broad aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects in the US released a final report Monday summarizing its two-year effort, saying it hoped the work would “serve as a road map for Congress, the Executive Branch, and the private sector to prepare for and respond to future pandemics.” In the 520-page report, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic concludes that the coronavirus “most likely emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China,” citing factors like biological characteristics of the virus and illnesses among researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in fall 2019. In the new report, the subcommittee also faulted the pandemic efforts of the World Health Organization, saying it placed the political interests of the Chinese Communist Party ahead of its mission to help people around the world and even allowed the party to control its investigation into the virus’ origins. Social distancing and mask mandates were not based on hard science, the report says, and “prolonged lockdowns caused immeasurable harm to not only the American economy, but also to the mental and physical health of Americans, with a particularly negative effect on younger citizens.” Experts have said that such mitigation recommendations were sometimes based on research into other respiratory viruses, because of a lack of knowledge about the coronavirus, and that guidelines may shift as scientific knowledge develops. The report also accuses public health officials of taking part in a “coordinated effort … to ignore natural immunity and suppress dissenting opinions.” Research has showed that immune protection after an infection seems strong but wanes over time, and experts say Covid-19 vaccines help fill that immunity gap.