The House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on Friday issued its first subpoena to Dr. Kristian Andersen, co-author of one of the earliest and most wide-reaching scientific papers on the origins of COVID-19.
“The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2” was published in March 2020 and served as a highly influential paper arguing against the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in a lab. More recent developments after the paper’s publication have revived the lab leak theory while casting doubts upon Andersen’s co-authored work and alternative hypotheses about the pandemic’s origins.
The Select Subcommittee published a memo in March chronicling the allegations and revelations that call into question the paper’s assertions.
The Friday subpoena is meant to further investigate the memo’s findings, according to a press release from the subcommittee. In a transcribed interview June 16, Andersen said he and his co-authors discussed the paper on a private Slack channel, rather than over email. Republican Ohio Rep and subcommittee chairman Brad Wenstrup “is specifically seeking Slack messages related to the drafting, publication, and critical reception” of the “Proximal Origins” paper, according to the press release.
🚨SUBPOENA ALERT🚨@COVIDSelect announces its FIRST subpoena for “Proximal Origins” author Kristian Andersen’s private communications with the paper’s co-authors & related info on COVID-19 origins.
We are following the breadcrumbs of a COVID cover-up straight to the source! pic.twitter.com/OJUR7zWyWD
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) June 23, 2023
Dr. Anthony Fauci may have played a more significant role in the paper’s development than previously believed, the March memo alleged. Fauci previously served as President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, as well as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NAIAD) and a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH previously funded dangerous gain-of-function research at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, the agency at the center of the lab leak theory. (RELATED: ‘I’m Not Letting Anything Pass’: Rand Paul Vows To Hold Back Biden Nominees Until COVID Docs Released)
“Americans deserve to know why this happened, who was involved, and how we can prevent the suppression of scientific discourse during a future pandemic,” the Select Subcommittee tweeted Friday.