On January 28, 2025, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) announced that the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which he chairs, has subpoenaed 14 federal agencies as part of a comprehensive investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and U.S. funding of high-risk viral research.
The subpoenas were issued as part of a bipartisan effort to assess national security threats associated with potentially hazardous biological research. Paul emphasized the need for oversight to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
Agencies targeted by the subpoenas include the National Institutes of Health, the State Department, and the CIA, among others. The request focuses on gain-of-function research, which involves manipulating pathogens to enhance their infectiousness or alter their symptoms.
Paul has been scrutinizing the links between gain-of-function research and the COVID-19 pandemic for several years, which has led to contentious discussions with former National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The investigation gained traction following revelations that the NIH funded risky coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through grants to EcoHealth Alliance, which was recently barred from receiving U.S. government funding.
In a related development, a CIA spokesperson stated that the agency now assesses with low confidence that SARS-CoV-2 may have originated from a laboratory accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.