Exclusive report claims U.S. troops had COVID in Wuhan before the Pandemic began

In a startling revelation that could shift the narrative around the origins of COVID-19, a recently uncovered military report has indicated that seven U.S. service members may have contracted COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, as early as October 2019—months before China officially acknowledged the virus. The report, which was mandated by the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, was kept secret by the Biden administration for nearly two years before being released in late March 2025. It details how the American troops fell ill with COVID-like symptoms after attending the World Military Games, held in Wuhan in October 2019, the same month the virus is believed to have begun circulating in the city.

The disclosure directly contradicts previous statements by both the Trump and Biden administrations, which denied any evidence that U.S. military personnel had contracted the virus during the games. Former Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby had previously dismissed such suggestions, asserting that the Department of Defense had “no knowledge” of any infections among military personnel in Wuhan. The timing and location of the games are significant, as Wuhan is home to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been at the center of controversy regarding gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses funded in part by U.S. taxpayers.

Professor Richard Ebright, a well-known advocate of the lab-leak theory, weighed in on the report, asserting that these new findings support the idea that COVID-19 was circulating in Wuhan much earlier than previously believed. “It is an outrage that the Biden administration withheld this crucial information from the public,” Ebright said. “This confirms what intelligence and scientific data have indicated—that COVID-19 was already in Wuhan long before December 2019.”

Military athletes from several allied nations, including Germany, France, Italy, and Luxembourg, also reported COVID-like symptoms during their time in Wuhan, and some described the city as a “ghost town.” According to reports from the Daily Mail, the once-bustling metropolis was eerily quiet during the event.

Senator Joni Ernst has criticized the Biden administration for not releasing the report immediately after its completion. “Taxpayers deserve the truth about the origins of COVID-19,” she said. “If American troops were infected in Wuhan in October 2019, it casts serious doubt on the theories that place the pandemic’s start in a wet market two months later.” This new evidence adds to the growing body of questions surrounding the virus’s origins and whether the public has been fully informed about its early spread.