Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on Sunday urged the United States to “get to the bottom” of reports suggesting the high-security Wuhan, China lab studying coronaviruses shut down in mid-October 2019, and whether it suggests transmission of the coronavirus to humans at that time.
In an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Cotton said cell phone data reportedly shows the lab “stopped for several days.”
The private analysis says there was no cellphone activity in a high-security portion of the Wuhan Institute of Virology from Oct. 7 through Oct. 24, 2019, and that there may have been a "hazardous event" sometime between Oct. 6 and Oct. 11, NBC News reported.
“We need to look at the data carefully,” Cotton said, noting “if there were a shut down of roads… if confirmed… it is highly coincidental about the time” it was suspected there was human transmission of the coronavirus.
“It’s so important to get to the bottom of this data,” he said. “First we need to verify… then to use other sources [to find out] what they suggest.… we need to figure out exactly why.”
Cotton also said U.S. medical institutions need to be hyper-aware of any efforts by China to be the first to come up with a COVID-19 vaccine.
“The Department of Homeland Security has issued a warning,” he said.
“All our institutions need to have their guard up against Chinese espionage,” he urged.
According to the BBC, the United States has already seen foreign spy agencies carry out reconnaissance of research into a coronavirus vaccine.