Story at a glance:
- Anthony Fauci is not sure COVID-19 is a natural disease.
- Fauci wants a full investigation in China.
- A Chinese official has denied his country’s association with the virus, citing the WHO report, saying it is unlikely the virus leaked out from China.
Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and President Biden’s chief medical adviser, is supporting an open investigation of the coronavirus origins, saying earlier this month he is “not convinced” it developed naturally.
When asked about whether the virus originated naturally, Fauci said that he wants to look closer into the matter, according to Fox News.
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“I am not convinced about that. I think we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we continue to find out to the best of our ability what happened,” Fauci said, speaking to PolitiFact’s Katie Sanders at an event.
“Certainly, the people who investigated it say it likely was the emergence from an animal reservoir that then infected individuals, but it could have been something else, and we need to find that out. So, you know, that’s the reason why I said I’m perfectly in favor of any investigation that looks into the origin of the virus,” he continued.
As The Hill previously reported, Fauci and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) clashed over the role of a virology lab in Wuhan, China, in the origins of COVID-19.
Paul accused the doctor of being linked with the Chinese government and supporting the laboratory that bioengineered the deadly virus, citing there is a connection between the NIH and the Wuhan lab, a false narrative circulating among right-wing media and politicians.
Paul believes the Wuhan lab was testing a deadly virus, funded by the U.S. government, and then got leaked.
Changing America also reported that a group of prominent scientists does not want to rule out the possibility that the coronavirus was human-made in a laboratory, pending additional information. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating reports that young adults and adolescents who received COVID-19 vaccines experienced heart inflammation after their second doses.
The White House has not provided evidence to refute the lab leak theory, with press secretary Jen Psaki saying the Biden administration is concerned that the Chinese government was “not transparent from the beginning.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology were sick around November 2019 and had to be hospitalized.
No one knows how all three researchers got sick or why, according to the undisclosed U.S. intelligence report.
The Journal reports that China denies the allegation that the virus somehow was created in their lab and was leaked. China’s foreign ministry cited the team led by the World Health Organization, which said it was unlikely that the virus came from China on Sunday.
“The U.S. continues to hype the lab leak theory,” the Chinese foreign ministry told the Journal. “Is it actually concerned about tracing the source or trying to divert attention?”
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