House Republicans launched an investigation Monday into the origins of COVID-19 by issuing a series of letters to current and former Biden administration officials for documents and testimony,the Associated Press reported. The Republican chairmen of the House Oversight Committee and the subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic requested information from several people, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, surrounding the hypothesis that the coronavirus leaked accidentally from a Chinese lab. Fauci said in November that he would “cooperate fully and testify” if Republicans followed through with their plans to investigate COVID’s origin.
The news comes as the seven-day average of new U.S. COVID cases continues to fall and stood at 38,926 on Monday, according to a New York Times tracker. That’s down 15% from two weeks ago. The daily average for hospitalizations was down 11% at 29,009. The average for deaths was 452, down 11% from two weeks ago. The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 673.1 million on Tuesday, while the death toll rose above 6.85 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. leads the world with 102.9 million cases and 1,114,546 fatalities
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