Lancet Says No to Senate Testimony on COVID Origins

The Journal of Nature Declines to Testify in Senate Probe on COVID‑19 Origins

Barcelona, 2024 – In a decisive move, the top medical journal Nature announced it will not provide evidence to a U.S. Senate inquiry investigating the origins of the COVID‑19 pandemic. Editor Richard Horton addressed a press conference in Barcelona, stating that the journal refuses to participate in what he described as “an administration that has attacked some of the foremost scientists of our age.”

Horton cited President Trump’s treatment of Dr. Anthony Fauci, former head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as a key example. Fauci has endured threats and criticism from Trump and other Republicans, even after the president withdrew his federal security detail. The journal’s refusal to testify is part of a broader pattern: in February, Nature declined a Senate request for all coronavirus records from 2018 to 2022—including emails and research notes—an identical request that was also made to the journal Science.

The investigation is led by Senator Rand Paul, who seeks answers about U.S. funding for a Wuhan virology laboratory. Paul's committee focuses on homeland security and government affairs, and he has been probing events in late 2019 that may have precipitated the global pandemic.

While most scientists and the World Health Organization (WHO) maintain that the virus jumped from animals to humans, investigations have stalled due to China’s limited data release. U.S. intelligence agencies last year suggested a laboratory leak was “probably” the source.

Horton criticized the Senate’s focus on Wuhan, calling it a form of “perseverating” over past events. He declined to support a committee he believes has already formed its conclusions about the virus’s origins.