This full GOP Senate report hasn’t been released to the public yet but has been shown to some reporters. An interim version of the report (35 pages compared to 300 pages for the full report) was released last October. The gist of the report is that an unintentional lab leak is the most likely explanation.

“The preponderance of information affirms the plausibility of a research-related incident that was likely unintentional resulting from failures of biosafety containment during vaccine-related research,” the extended report concludes.

The report describes this evidence as “circumstantial.” Both leading theories are missing key supporting evidence, which may never become available or would likely be obtained through intelligence gathering.

According to the NY Post, the new report suggests there may have been two separate leaks, one that happened earlier which alerted some within China and a later one that finally gained widespread attention.

A report released by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) raises the prospect that millions of lives worldwide could have been saved — including those of more than 1 million Americans — if not for an alleged “coverup” by the Chinese government while a much-theorized initial outbreak simmered.

“This report concludes most likely this was two leaks — the possibility of a lab leak in the September-October [2019] timeframe, even as early as July or August,” the medical doctor turned senator told a small group of journalists ahead of the release of the 301-page document.

“We’ve concluded that they [China] started vaccine development in November 2019. And then another lab leak seems to be most sensible explanation,” he said. “There are key data points that are being held back that could help us prove that.”…

A pre-November series of additional events adds weight to the theory, Marshall said, including the mysterious death of 11 Iranian athletes, publicly reported in 2020. Some of the athletes reportedly attended the Olympics-style World Military Games in held Wuhan, China, in October 2019.

The reference to the death of Iranian athletes is interesting because China itself has pointed to the World Military Games in October 2019, suggesting that US athletes who came to the games may have been the source of the virus. This is from a NY Times story published in March 2020:

China is pushing a new theory about the origins of the coronavirus: It is an American disease that might have been introduced by members of the United States Army who visited Wuhan in October…

Mr. Zhao appeared to refer to the Military World Games, which were held in Wuhan in October. The Pentagon sent 17 teams with more than 280 athletes and other staff members to the event, well before any reported outbreaks. The Pentagon has had confirmed cases in South Korea and Italy and is bracing for more to emerge, but no illnesses have been tied to American service members from October.

The Washington Post published an editorial Saturday about the question of the origins of the virus. That editorial also mentioned the forthcoming GOP Senate report.

An 18-month investigation by the minority oversight staff of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the last Congress examined biosafety worries about high-containment laboratories in Wuhan in the months just before the pandemic outbreak. The probe’s interim report was made public in October, and a much larger final report, which we have read, is to be released shortly by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). The investigators have documented a number of biosafety issues that arose at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2019, including concerns about limited availability of resources, equipment and trained personnel. Robert Hawley, a U.S. biosafety expert who advised the Senate investigators, told The Post of a broader problem in China: “It is very, very apparent that their biological safety training is minimal.”…

According to the probe, in the months before the pandemic, the Wuhan Institute of Virology responded to known problems by submitting numerous patents and procurement notices for biosafety devices and improvements. For example, on Nov. 19, 2019, an urgent procurement request was made for an “air incinerator,” which would be used to sterilize exhaust gas after it had left a laboratory autoclave, used to destroy infectious biological materials. Why was the air incinerator necessary at this point in time, which happened to be around when the first reported cases of infection arose? China, meanwhile, has continued to insist — as recently as the April 8 news conference — that there were no cases before December…

What really happened in Wuhan? The mystery remains. China holds — and should provide — some of the answers.

It sounds like the report will be issued soon, maybe even tomorrow. I’m looking forward to reading it and seeing what else investigators have dug up that requires an explanation.