Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic raises red flags in pandemic handling 

A special Congressional subcommittee released a report earlier this week that outlines the impact of COVID-19 on society over the past two years. The 520-page document, titled After Action Review of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Lessons Learned and a Path Forward, is meant to guide the government in handling future disease outbreaks.

A highlight from the report states that masks, social distancing, and lockdowns caused more harm than good. The report describes that measures taken during the pandemic created public distrust, and mental health aspects of having to comply with mandates still ripple.

“The ‘6 feet apart’ social distancing recommendation — which shut down schools and small businesses across the country — was arbitrary and not based on science. During closed-door testimony, Dr. Fauci testified that the guidance, ‘sort of just appeared,’” report findings state.

Other points of interest include information about the origins of COVID-19 and how it came from a single source in Wuhan, China, the country’s largest SARS research facility. Those working in the lab were sick before the official pandemic was declared, and little was done about it.

The report says, “By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced.”

Economic aspects of the pandemic were also reviewed. For example, EcoHealth, an alliance for scientific research and pandemic prevention that funded the Wuhan research, used U.S. taxpayer money. In doing so, EcoHealth violated the terms of its National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant. Since then, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has suspended all funding to EcoHealth.

The Congressional report is not the first time COVID response efficacy was questioned. In May 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published in the organization’s journal Emerging Infectious Diseases that, “Although mechanistic studies support the potential effect of hand hygiene or face masks, evidence from 14 randomized controlled trials of these measures did not support a substantial effect on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza. We similarly found limited evidence on the effectiveness of improved hygiene and environmental cleaning.”

Sources: https://oversight.house.gov/release/final-report-covid-select-concludes-2-year-investigation-issues-500-page-final-report-on-lessons-learned-and-the-path-forward/
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article