U.S. funded discovery of close COVID-19 relative

American ties to coronavirus research at the pandemic s epicenter in Wuhan are closer than previously understood.

The U.S. government underwrote the discovery of the closest relative of SARS-CoV-2 known before the pandemic s start.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology s U.S. partners claimed the discovery of the close cousin virus in a letter to a member of Congress about U.S. Agency for International Development achievements, and listed a research paper detailing its discovery in grant progress reports to the National Institutes of Health.

The cousin virus is 96 percent similar to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and has been at the center of speculation about the pandemic s origin.

via usrtk.org

I hope the GOP wins just so we can get to the bottom of the Covid thing. I’m not terribly hopeful.