U.S. Right to Know Sues State Department for Documents about Origins of SARS-CoV-2

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News Release

For Immediate Release: Monday, November 30, 2020
For More Information Contact: Gary Ruskin (415) 944-7350 or  Sainath Suryanarayanan

U.S. Right to Know, a nonprofit investigative public health group, filed a lawsuit today against the U.S. Department of State for violating provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

This is the second FOIA lawsuit filed by USRTK as part of its efforts to uncover what is known about the origins of novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2; the risks of biosafety labs; and gain-of-function research, which seeks to augment the infectivity or lethality of potential pandemic pathogens.

Today’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeks State Department documents and correspondence with or about China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the EcoHealth Alliance, which partnered with and funded the Wuhan Institute of Virology, among other subjects.

The new lawsuit follows one filed by USRTK on November 5 against the National Institutes of Health over its failure to provide records about the origins of SARS-CoV-2.  Since July, USRTK has filed 43 state, federal, and international public records requests seeking information about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and the risks of biosafety labs and gain-of-function research.

SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes the disease Covid-19.

For more information about USRTK’s investigation, see “Why we are researching the origins of SARS-CoV-2, biosafety labs and GOF research ” and the reading list on “What are the origins of SARS-CoV-2? What are the risks of gain-of-function research? ” Other articles from the USRTK investigation include “EcoHealth Alliance orchestrated key scientists’ statement on “natural origin” of SARS-CoV-2,” “Validity of key studies on origin of coronavirus in doubt; science journals investigating,” “Nature and PLoS Pathogens probe scientific veracity of key studies linking pangolin coronaviruses to origin of SARS-CoV-2, ” and “Scientist with conflict of interest leading Lancet COVID-19 Commission task force on virus origins.”

USRTK is represented in the State Department case by Daniel C. Snyder of the Law Offices of Charles M. Tebbutt, PC, and Laura Beaton of Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP.

U.S. Right to Know is an investigative research group focused on promoting transparency for public health. For more information, see usrighttoknow.wpenginepowered.com.

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