Christa Case Bryant writes: “A year and a half into a worldwide pandemic that is blamed for the deaths of more than 3 million people, a Chinese lab in Wuhan is under growing scrutiny for a possible connection to the outbreak of COVID-19. Republican members of Congress, who have raised questions since early 2020 about China’s lack of transparency about the virus’s origins, are making a renewed push for bipartisan investigations.

But with Democrats controlling both the House and the Senate, any congressional inquiries launched without their support will lack subpoena power and authority to compel witnesses to testify. Without those powers, GOP members of Congress are making little headway…”

Learn more: Lab leak? Why Congress is split on investigating COVID’s origins

Sam Husseini writes: “With the ‘intelligence community’ providing the results of its alleged ‘investigation’ as to the origins of the pandemic, reportedly ‘inconclusive’ — it’s important to keep some critical things, and some possibilities, in mind. Among them: 

“The US Congress can investigate without Chinese involvement. While many are calling for deeper inquiry (an overdue, good thing) they are doing so in a manner that places the burden purely on China. This is wrong for a number of reasons. Richard Ebright at Rutgers has stated: “Many threads of investigation are available in the US and would be accessible to a Congressional inquiry with subpoena power. At EcoHealth. At funding agencies (USAID, DTRA, DARPA, DHS, and NIH). At publishers (Springer-Nature and Lancet). No cooperation from China needed.” See my piece on Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance, which funded the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s dangerous lab work and itself received over $100 million in USAID, Pentagon and NIH money… 

“While some House Republicans are apparently pushing for a Congressional inquiry, Pelosi is preventing it. Where is Schumer, Carolyn Maloney (chair of House Oversight) and Frank Pallone (chair of House Energy and Commerce) — will they get behind a real investigation? An honest inquiry would almost certainly expose dangerous lab work by US institutions that could be seen as biowarfare — akin to the Church Committee of the 1970s… It is possible that some of the Republicans are pushing for it in part because they know Pelosi will block it. Thus, both arms of the US establishment are served: Leverage against China and US government continuing dangerous lab work.”

Learn more: Crucial Points on Pandemic Origins Debate

Read more: Five Questions Only the U.S. Can Answer: A Response to the Unclassified Summary of the Intelligence Community Assessment on COVID-19 Origins

Whether we’re talking about toxic pesticides (such as Monsanto/Bayer’s Roundup), GMOs, highly processed foods, pharmaceutical drug side effects, environmental pollution, greenwashing, or special interest control over domestic and foreign affairs, OCA’s mission, since our founding in the early 1990s, has been to expose cover ups, corporate crime, and dangerous practices—offering up positive solutions.

We have never been a single-issue organization, nor have we shied away from controversies such as 9/11, the Anthrax attacks (2001), the Iraq War (2003), stolen elections (in 2000 and 2004), the degradation of organic standards (1998-2021), and the need for a revolutionary transformation of U.S. food and farming as outlined by Bernie Sanders in his proposed Green New Deal (2019-2020).

OCA has never pretended that organic and regenerative food, farming, and public health are separate “issues” divorced from politics, legislation, and economic control. There can be no healthy, organic food and farming and vibrant public health on a burnt and poisoned planet, nor organic justice and Fair Trade for all under a dictatorship of out-of-control corporations, surveillance capitalists, mad scientists, and politicians. OCA has always been politically independent. We attack Democrats and Republicans when they are wrong, and give them credit when credit is due.

Read more: Why Cover Ups Matter

Join us: Ronnie Cummins to Speak at 9/11 Anniversary Events Exploring the Links Between the 2001 Anthrax Attacks and the Origins of COVID-19