FILE – In this June 8, 2018, file photo, Chinese President Xi Jinping attends a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Just months after clearing the way to rule in perpetuity president and ruling Communist Party leader Xi Jinping is best by a wave of economic, foreign policy and domestic political challenges. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

On Wednesday, Fox News’ Bret Baier reported the stunning news that officials have “increasingly high confidence” the COVID-19 pandemic originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a Level 4 biological testing lab located in Wuhan, China. My colleague, Bonchie, posted about this last night here.

Baier appeared on “Hannity” last night to discuss the information he has learned. His sources believe the virus was accidentally transferred from a bat to an intern working at the lab (patient zero) who unknowingly began spreading the virus into the population of Wuhan.

During Sean Hannity’s opening, he said, according to multiple sources, in their efforts to cover up the origins of the virus, “the Chinese erased data, destroyed samples, doctors and journalists disappeared, and China shut down domestic travel to and from Wuhan, but they did not stop international flights to and from Wuhan. In other words, they protected their own country, but were willing to expose the rest of the world knowing the risks.”

The sources also told Baier that the World Health Organization (WHO) assisted China in their cover-up efforts. Both China and the WHO deny these allegations.

Baier told Hannity:

This is from multiple sources who have been briefed at the beginning part of the origins of China and the beginning of the virus. They’ve also seen documents, both open-sourced and classified. We’ve asked to see those documents directly. But they are saying that it is increasingly likely that there is increasing confidence that the virus, COVID-19, started in that Wuhan lab, not as a bioweapon, let’s just be clear. There is no one who’s saying that this was a bioweapon.

Hannity asks, “How would we know that?”

Baier continued:

These sources are not saying that. They’re saying it occurred naturally because China was trying to show that it could be as good or better than the U.S. in handling viruses, discovering viruses and that this was a botched effort to contain this and it got out to the population. So, there’s increasing confidence that that’s how it starts. They are 100% confident that China altered the data, the statistics. They did a lot of things to contain the information. Meanwhile, they cut down – as you mentioned – travel from Wuhan internally, but left the international flights going and that’s obviously how you have a spread like this. What I think you’re going to start to see if more officials being asked about this… And also these documents that U.S. doctors went to that lab a few years ago to inspect it and through the Embassy in Beijing sent back warnings to the State Department saying that this lab was really not living up to standards and there were warnings about how the lab was operating.

Hannity notes, “It certainly would speak volumes if they are not allowing people from Wuhan to travel to China or to any other areas of China, but they’re letting them travel internationally. That would mean they knew the risk was real. They protected their own country, but nobody else and we already know that they were not forthcoming.”

…

Baier said, “My sources…they’ve been briefed on this and they seem pretty confident. The fact that they’re saying it like this is news in and of itself…We really want to see the evidence, the hard, direct evidence and we’ll see if we can get that.”

The fact that this information is coming to us from Bret Baier gives it more credence. He wouldn’t put his reputation on the line for a sensational story.

I’m sure that before breaking a story like this, he would have vetted whatever open-sourced information was available. I would think he could access domestic flight information for the Wuhan airport in December and January, but I suppose we shouldn’t assume anything where China is concerned.

If it is proven that the CCP stopped air traffic to and from Wuhan to contain the spread of the virus, but continued to allow travel from Wuhan to foreign countries, it would be a game-changer. China will truly become a pariah on the global stage. I can’t imagine anything President Xi could say or do to redeem himself.

The other major takeaway from this story, if true, is it would become clear that China’s attempts to accuse the U.S. of bringing the virus to Wuhan were an outright lie. We know that, of course, but this would prove it beyond any reasonable doubt. Maybe Democrats would finally believe it too.

It’s also conceivable that we may never know. Perhaps it’s impossible to prove, especially because the CCP has had four months to tamper with potential evidence.

CNN covered this story as well. They reported, “The theory has been pushed by supporters of the President, including some congressional Republicans, who are eager to deflect criticisms of Trump’s handling of the pandemic.”

(First segment.)



MBA, former financial consultant, options trader

Mom of three grown children, grandmother

Email Elizabeth at



Writer at RedStateMBA, former financial consultant, options traderMom of three grown children, grandmotherEmail Elizabeth at [email protected] Read more by Elizabeth Vaughn