Covid-19 Origin Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. BERA. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

This should be an easy vote because this is just about science. It is about understanding the origins of this virus that created this pandemic that took at a minimum 7 million lives-- probably many more than that. It is just about science. We are not debating the geography of where this virus originated. We know that. We are debating how this novel virus evolved. This is a brand-new virus, and that should go without question.

I hope this is a strong ``yes'' vote by both Democrats and Republicans.

I think about this as a doctor and a scientist, someone who has spent a lot of my time in Congress looking at global health security, looking at pandemic preparedness. I am proud to serve on the select committee that is looking at coronavirus and the impact of this pandemic. My colleague, another physician, Dr. Wenstrup, is the chairman of that committee, and the ranking member is Dr. Raul Ruiz.

Again, I think if we can take the politics out of this, we can actually understand what happened over these past 3 years, the impact it had not just on the United States but on the entire world.

We can work together as Democrats and Republicans and hopefully the global scientific community to prevent the next pandemic. That is what this is about.

I don't know if we will ever find those origins if the Chinese Communist Party doesn't work with us. It is in their interests as well because they have suffered greatly. The Chinese people have suffered greatly from this pandemic.

They ought to allow the best scientists in the world to go to ground zero, to the hot zone, to Wuhan, and try to understand how this virus evolved.

Maybe it was a wet market. Maybe it was a lab leak. It is important for us to understand what it was because that then will allow us to address and shore up the system.

If it was a lab leak, we ought to have the highest safety standards in the world if we are doing this kind of research. We ought to look at whether we should do gain-of-function research. That is a legitimate question. There is scientific debate about that, et cetera, but if it was a lab leak, we ought to understand that.

We ought to come together as a global community and make sure we have the highest standards. If it was a wet market, if this was a naturally occurring virus that came from an animal into a human, we ought to understand that, as well. We ought to put in the safety and precautions to make sure that doesn't happen in the future.

Let's take the politics out of it. Today, we have a chance as the United States Congress to take a big vote, Democrats and Republicans, to say: Let's try to figure out what happened.

It affected all of us, and we ought to do everything we can as the United States Congress, Democrats and Republicans, and as a global scientific community to prevent this from happening again in our lifetime and, hopefully, ever again.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, to vote ``yes'' on this bill. It will allow us to share information with the public because, again, this affected all of us. I hope we have a strong ``yes'' vote on the COVID origins bill.

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