A groundbreaking report, which was legally mandated to be made public under President Joe Biden's administration but was not, has claimed that seven American military athletes who participated in the World Military Games in Wuhan, China, in October 2019 exhibited symptoms of COVID-19.
This report, which was due to be released in 2022, provides the first evidence that the Coronavirus was present in Wuhan and may have been transported back to the United States months before the outbreak was publicly acknowledged.
According to the Western Journal, the report, written by Andrew Kerr for the Free Beacon, "bolsters the growing consensus that it could have leaked into the human population from a Chinese lab." The 2022 National Defense Authorization Act required the Biden administration to make its report on the 2019 Wuhan World Military Games publicly available online in a searchable format by the summer of 2022. However, the report was only made public in late March when it was quietly uploaded to a Defense Department website, despite copies being sent to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees in December 2022.
The Wuhan World Military Games have been a subject of controversy, with Chinese authorities suggesting that the virus was introduced to China by American athletes. However, the report lends weight to the widely accepted theory that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology due to gain-of-function research conducted under less than ideal conditions.
The report concluded that "The Department of Defense (DoD) has concluded through correspondence with the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and United States of America Medical Director in charge of the safety and health of the participants in the 2019 World Military Games, that 7 Service members who attended the games exhibited COVID-19- like signs and/or symptoms during the timeframe of October 18, 2019 through January 21, 2020." It also noted that "The COVID-19-like symptoms could have been caused by other respiratory infections. All 7 Service members symptoms resolved within 6 days."
However, due to the lack of a reliable testing mechanism at the time of their return, there is no concrete evidence as to whether these individuals had COVID-19 or another respiratory illness. The Pentagon told The American Prospect, which first reported on the links to the World Military Games in June 2020, that they hadn't tested any of the athletes because it happened "prior to the reported outbreak."
The report also highlighted that the U.S. team used chartered flights to and from the games via Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, a location in one of the first states to experience a surge in COVID-19 cases. Dr. Ravina Kullar, an epidemiologist, expressed concern in 2020 about the lack of testing, especially given the high probability of the area being a center of the outbreak. "It may have happened before December, that is the unknown factor," Kullar added. "We still dont know who is patient zero. The Chinese government is not being transparent enough."
Several reports now suggest that COVID-19's "patient zero" was infected in early fall. A 2022 report from ProPublica alleged that signs of something amiss were present on the Wuhan Institute of Virology's website as early as September 2019. Multiple federal agencies, including the CIA, FBI, and Department of Energy, have publicly stated that the balance of evidence has led them to conclude that the virus SARS-CoV-2 originated at the WIV.
With the report now released on the Department of Defense's website, albeit quietly, congressional Republicans are demanding an investigation into why it wasn't released earlier. "Taxpayers deserve to know the truth about COVID-19 origins, but the Biden administration concealed this information from the American people for years," said Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa. "This report should have been made public immediately and not restricted to Washington insiders. If Americans visiting Wuhan were potentially infected with the COVID-19 virus in October 2019, those claiming the pandemic began in a wet market just two months later would be completely off base."
The Pentagon has yet to respond to a Free Beacon request for comment. The release of this report raises more questions about the origins of the virus and the transparency of both the Chinese and American governments. It underscores the need for further investigation and transparency in order to fully understand the origins and early spread of COVID-19.
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