[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 109 (Wednesday, June 23, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4731-S4732]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President, it seems like every week, we get a new 
update on the timeline for the origin of the COVID-19 virus. This week, 
we learned that in October of 2019--October 2019--that over 1,000 
soldiers from over 100 countries had gathered in Wuhan, China, for a 
military Olympics, if you will.
  Then what we learned is that, several weeks after that event, many of 
our own athletes and our own military personnel became ill, as well as 
folks from other countries. We went back further and talked to some of 
those soldiers. They told us that Wuhan, China, looked like a ghost 
town during that event. A town of over 11 million people looked like a 
ghost town.
  What I am frustrated about is that the CDC has not investigated this, 
that the military has not investigated it, and that, during the proper 
times, we could have tested their antibodies. When we learned of this, 
maybe, perhaps, in March or in April, they probably still had 
antibodies. Even today, we could investigate it, but we need

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the FDA to do its job as well. We need the FDA to pass a T-cell test so 
we can go back and see if these soldiers who became ill after this 
event--to see if, indeed, this was from the COVID-19 virus.
  Certainly, the timeline, by all accounts, is going backward every 
month, but I think it is time to update the American public, too, on 
what I feel are the lab origins of this virus. Certainly, this is just 
a theory, but I think we need to look into and discover and talk more 
about the biological origin of this virus.
  This is a model of COVID-19, the virus that has killed millions of 
people across the world. It looks very much like the original SARS 
virus, with an exception, and that exception is a protein spike. The 
protein spike that I am talking about is composed of two units. We will 
call those two units S-1 and S-2, and this is a model of that COVID-19 
protein spike. It is very special. It is very unique.
  Let's talk about the S-1 spike just for a second. The S-1 spike looks 
very similar--it looks exactly like viral gain-of-function research 
that was conducted between a lab in North Carolina and with Dr. Shi, 
the ``bat lady'' from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That S-1 spike 
sticks to lung cells like glue. Again, this is NIH-funded research, the 
North Carolina lab, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
  What we did is we took the basic, original SARS virus, and we slapped 
a protein spike on it that made it stick to human cells like glue. 
Think of it as being like a key in a lock. Think about, if you have a 
human cell as the lock, that there needs to be a special key. So they 
invented a special key that would impact and go into only human cells. 
That was done in about 2015, but then, after that, things go dark. We 
don't know what happened, but, somehow, this COVID-19 virus has another 
part of this protein spike, and we will call it the S-2 unit.
  The theory is that, in the Wuhan Institute of Virology and, possibly, 
in the Wuhan CDC Lab, further research was done. They developed a 
special part of this spike--again, the S-2 unit. This is what is so 
special about it: It has what we call a furin cleavage site. The furin 
cleavage site is--and don't take it from me; take it from Nobel 
Laureate Dr. David Baltimore.
  Dr. Baltimore said that the furin cleavage site with its double 
arginine codon--and I am paraphrasing here--is the smoking gun for the 
lab origin of the virus in that this double arginine codon just doesn't 
occur in nature and that only human cells have the ability to use that 
furin cleavage site and break this into two separate units. That is 
what allows this virus to dump its genetic material into human lung 
cells and replicate.
  As a physician, as a person who has studied virology a bit, this 
protein spike just doesn't look like it comes from nature. Everything 
about it would suggest that it was made in a laboratory. It is just too 
mean. It is too angry. It is just too perfect. It is too infectious. 
The unique thing about it is, though some would make us believe that 
this virus comes from bats, this virus doesn't like bats.
  It only took American scientists and Chinese scientists 4 months to 
discover the origin of the original SARS virus, that it came from a bat 
and then it went to another animal, an intermediate host. It only took 
us 4 months to discover that virus. The MERS virus, on the other hand, 
it took us about 9 months. Here we are 18 months later, and we don't 
have any type of an intermediate host. All of the mapping that we are 
seeing points to this virus being made in a laboratory.
  Now, the Wuhan lab could disprove me. They have the data to prove me 
wrong, but I am afraid that the data is now gone. It is gone forever--
most likely destroyed--unless, of course, we can find it in a cloud 
somewhere.
  It is outrageous that a comprehensive investigation on the origins of 
COVID-19 has still not been carried out. Now, I am proud that this body 
passed a resolution that Senator Gillibrand and I put together that 
calls for a transparent investigation of the COVID-19 outbreak, 
mandated by the World Health Assembly. It unanimously passed this body, 
and that resolution demands a full and transparent investigation to 
include the United States and our allies and our partners around the 
world.
  Now, it is time for the Senate to do our job. It is time for the 
Senate to fully investigate the origins of this virus as well. It would 
be utterly irresponsible to suffer through the worst pandemic in a 
century and not have the origins fully investigated.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.

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