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Miami, FL — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) released a statement after reports emerged that unelected bureaucrats in the U.S. State Department and elsewhere allegedly worked to hinder efforts by the Trump Administration to investigate the origins of COVID-19. 

“It is outrageous that people within our government worked to obstruct and censor the investigation into the origins of COVID-19, especially with regard to whether the virus emerged because of American-funded research at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Rubio said. “Unelected bureaucrats need more oversight to ensure they are acting in the best interests of the American people. It is indefensible that, next week, the Senate will push forward with investing $200 billion into federal research and development without critical safeguards to ensure it doesn’t end up stolen or misused to catastrophic ends by Beijing, in part because of the poor judgment of bureaucrats such as these.”

A recent article in Vanity Fair reported that American officials seeking greater transparency about COVID-19’s origins were explicitly told not to investigate the Wuhan Institute Virology’s gain-of-function research, as doing so would cast unwelcome light on U.S. government funding of it, and that the more general investigation was hindered “at every step.”