The Defence Department has released a report indicating that seven members of the United States armed forces may have become infected with the novel coronavirus while in Wuhan in October 2019. The individuals were participants in the World Military Games held in the city and reported symptoms resembling COVID‑19 during or after the event.
The document, obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, was required by the 2022 National Defence Authorization Act to be posted online in a searchable format by the summer of 2022. Although it was sent to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees in December 2022, it was not made publicly accessible until late March of the following year, when it appeared on a section of the Pentagon website dedicated to quality‑of‑life resources for service members and families.
Legislative background and delay
The legislation mandating public release of the report was passed more than two years before the document finally appeared on the Defence Department website. The delay has prompted scrutiny of the administration’s openness and responsibility, with critics arguing that taxpayers deserve the truth about the origins of the pandemic.
Findings of the report
The report states that the possible infections were treated as a highly confidential matter within the Defence Department. All seven service members recovered from their symptoms within six days, and the analysis found no statistically significant difference in COVID‑like illness rates at the bases where the soldiers were stationed compared with other bases. The document also notes that other respiratory illnesses could explain the symptoms.
According to the report, the notion that US troops may have contracted COVID‑19 in Wuhan could have been positively received by US allies. Athletes from Germany, France, Italy and Luxembourg also reported COVID‑like symptoms while at the games and described Wuhan as a ghost town.
Contradiction of earlier statements
The findings run counter to statements made by the Biden administration in 2021 that no American participants had contracted the virus at the games. In June 2021, a former Defence Department spokesperson told the Washington Post that the military had no awareness of any COVID‑19 cases among the athletes.
Broader context and reactions
Chinese officials have suggested that the United States might have introduced COVID‑19 into Wuhan through participation in the games. Federal agencies including the CIA, FBI and the Department of Energy have indicated that the pandemic most likely began at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where high‑risk gain‑of‑function research on bat coronaviruses was conducted, work that former NIAID director Dr Anthony Fauci had supported.
Rutgers University professor Richard Ebright told the Free Beacon that the research at the institute almost certainly caused COVID‑19 and expressed anger that the administration hid information about the earliest possible American cases. Senator Joni Ernst said the findings undermine the theory that COVID‑19 originated from a Wuhan wet market in December 2019 and asserted that taxpayers deserve the truth, accusing the administration of concealment. Republican members of Congress have concluded that the 2019 Wuhan World Military Games acted as an early super‑spreader event.
The Pentagon declined to comment further and did not reveal when it first learned of the possible illnesses.