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Comment by Jay Obernolte

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U.S. Representative from California
Although I agree with the Chairman, we may never definitively know the origin of COVID-19, thanks in no small part to a lack of cooperation by the Chinese government, that certainly does not mean that investigation into its origins will not bear fruit.
AI Verified (Jul 14, 2021)
Source:
Jay Obernolte, opening statement in "Principles for Outbreak Investigation: COVID-19 and Future Infectious Diseases," House Science Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight hearing, July 14, 2021.
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Policy proposals and claims
COVID-19 originated from a lab-related incident rather than natural zoonotic spillover
abstains
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Statement relation comments

AI Verified The quote is directly about the same issue—the origin of COVID-19—and the source context makes the author’s stance determinable as uncertainty/abstention rather than a clear lab-origin or natural-spillover position. Obernolte frames the matter as lacking conclusive evidence for any one origin theory and says an investigation is still worthwhile even if the true origin is never definitively known. ([govinfo.gov](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-117hhrg44965/html/CHRG-117hhrg44965.htm)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 2h ago
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AI Verified He is explicitly undecided: he says "we may never definitively know the origin of COVID-19," and the hearing text frames the issue as having "no conclusive evidence for one theory over another." That supports more investigation, not a substantive endorsement of lab-origin over zoonotic spillover. ([govinfo.gov](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-117hhrg44965/html/CHRG-117hhrg44965.htm)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 2h ago

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AI Verified Verified: the GovInfo transcript of the July 14, 2021 hearing shows Chairman Foster yielding to Ranking Member Obernolte, then records this exact sentence in Obernolte’s spoken opening statement; the table of contents also identifies the section as the statement of Representative Jay Obernolte. ([govinfo.gov](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-117hhrg44965/html/CHRG-117hhrg44965.htm)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 2h ago
replying to Jay Obernolte