dr Anthony Fauci calls for an “open mind to all possibilities” about the origin of COVID-19 but said he sees no data for a lab leak.
The former senior White House medical adviser, 82, who retired late last year, responded Monday to a bombshell report from the Department of Energy that said COVID-19 likely leaked from a lab in China.
Fauci’s comments came as Republicans criticized him for repeatedly denying the theory in the past.
The Wall Street Journal report revealed this weekend that the US Department of Energy now believes the virus that took over the world in 2020 has leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China.
The Republican legislature proposed Dr. Anthony Fauci after a bombshell report from the Department of Energy said COVID-19 likely leaked from a lab in China
Virologist Shi Zheng-li – nicknamed “Bat Lady” – is pictured in the lab. She hunted dozens of deadly Covid-like viruses in bat caves and studied them at WIV
Fauci told the Boston Globe on Monday, “We must all be open to all possibilities” about the origins of the coronavirus, but added that “we may never know.”
“I don’t see any data for a lab leak,” Fauci said in the interview. “That doesn’t mean it couldn’t have happened. But evolutionary virologists published a study in the journal Science with data that “suggested pretty strongly that it was a naturally occurring virus” — a virus that jumped from animals to humans.
The FBI concluded in 2021 that the virus leaked from a lab and said it did so with “moderate confidence.” The Department of Energy has changed its position and has done so with “low confidence,” the WSJ reported.
US officials told the publication that while both departments agreed, they reached their conclusions for different reasons.
Fauci said Monday that although the FBI and Department of Energy believe a lab leak was to blame, “four other intelligence agencies believe it was a natural occurrence.”
He mentioned “openness and transparency” and cooperation with China.
“There needs to be a lot more research into provenance,” he said. “It’s very difficult to do this if you don’t have access to the place where it happened.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning has blasted what she called “politicizing” theories about the origins of COVID-19 after an Energy Ministry analysis that pointed to the possibility of a leak from the Wuhan lab
The FBI also has expertise in disease and virology as it hires microbiologists and immunologists and undertakes part of its efforts to protect the country from bioterrorism and weapons.
Republicans in Congress, who had previously seized on the lab leak theory, seized on the new report as they slammed Fauci on Monday.
“Anthony Fauci lied and millions of people died,” Senator Marsha Blackburn tweeted. “For years, Anthony Fauci and Biden officials have called this a conspiracy.”
Senator John Kennedy tweeted: “Remember when I saw Dr. Fauci asked how did he know China hadn’t lied to him and used American money for gain-of-function research in Wuhan? Fauci told me, “You never know.” Maybe we’re getting closer to knowing.”
Sen. Rand Paul retweeted a reporter who wrote, “@RandPaul asked Fauci about a lab leak. He denied it. Repeated.’
His wife Kelley tweeted about a time when Fauci texted her husband: “Senator Paul, with all due respect, you are dead wrong. The NIH has never and will not do so to fund functional research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.’
Kelley wrote: “Fauci lied. He knew that NIH and NIAID funds were sent to Wuhan through the intermediary EcoHealth Alliance.
Covid DID leak from Wuhan virus lab, Department of Energy concludes
The Department of Energy is now joining the FBI in saying the virus spread from the Wuhan lab
Former Trump administration official Monica Crowley tweeted, “Fauci and the rest of the criminal COVID cartel didn’t get it all wrong.
They knew the truth and lied, destroying countless lives and the health of the nation. Intentionally. Instead of being vilified and persecuted, they were celebrated. There must be justice.’
Rep. Byron Donalds tweeted that he looks forward to interviewing Fauci: “Dr. Fauci sought the limelight on the backs of the American people, their businesses, education and quality of life. From magazine covers, Sunday shows, and elite receptions, he ignored science to gather power and clout. I have many questions and look forward to asking them.’
On Sunday, the official Twitter account of the House Republicans posted a picture of Fauci with the words, “Responsibility comes.”
The Department of Energy ruled with “low confidence” in a classified intelligence report recently submitted to the White House and key members of Congress, the Journal said, citing people who read the intelligence report.
The change in agency attitude is important because the agency is known for its expertise and oversees various US laboratories, some of which conduct biological research.
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Sunday there were “differing views in the intelligence community” about the origins of the pandemic.
“Some of them have said they just don’t have enough information,” Sullivan told CNN.
Officials in the East Asian nation disputed the findings.
Chinese officials also responded to the report with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning accusing unnamed parties of trying to slander or defame China.
Whether the global outbreak started with a spillover from wild animals sold at the market or leaked from the Wuhan lab just eight miles across the Yangtze River has sparked heated debates about how to prevent the next pandemic. New studies point to natural spillover to Huanan’s wildlife market. Positive swab samples from floors, cages and counters are also tracing the virus to stalls in the south-west corner of the market (below left), where animals with the potential to harbor Covid were then sold for meat or fur (below right).
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning accused unnamed parties of trying to slander or defame China — even amid ongoing calls for China to grant unrestricted access to information from its Wuhan facility.
“Certain parties should stop rehashing the ‘Lab Leak’ narrative, stop slandering China and stop politicizing ancestry tracking,” she said during a press conference on Monday.
“The origin of the novel coronavirus is a scientific question and should not be politicized.”
She addressed China’s cooperation with investigative agencies, although in 2021 China rejected an effort by the World Health Organization to conduct a second phase of their investigation.
The group has denied dropping its investigation in the face of China’s obstacles.
While the lab leak theory was initially dismissed as conspiracy and xenophobia, a growing number of scientists have come up with the idea that the virus may have escaped in an accident at the WIV.
The research facility is less than 10 miles from an animal slaughter market where the first batch of human cases was clustered.
Some experts also claim that Covid’s unique spike protein, which it uses to infect humans, has traits of engineering.
However, others consider these scenarios unlikely and say there is some indirect evidence that Covid jumped from animals at the Huanan Seafood Market, where animals known to harbor Covid include raccoon dogs, hedgehogs, rats and squirrels, kept in deplorable conditions.
There is still no direct evidence of a natural or artificial origin.
After the outbreak of the pandemic, Chinese officials were found to have wiped key databases from the lab and stifled independent investigations into the facility when questions were asked about its involvement.
The Energy Ministry has reversed its position and, based on new information, has concluded that the Covid-19 virus most likely leaked from a Chinese research laboratory. Pictured is the Wuhan Institute of Virology in February 2021
Researchers who contracted a mysterious flu-like virus months ahead of the official Covid timeline have been silenced or disappeared.
One of their senior scientists was nicknamed the “Bat Lady” because of her extensive work on coronaviruses such as Covid.
In January, the US Office of the Inspector General openly criticized the National Institutes of Health for not properly keeping up with US-funded virus experiments in China in the run-up to the outbreak.
The federal review examined three taxpayer-funded research grants awarded to British scientist Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance between 2014 and 2021.
It found that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and EcoHealth failed to “understand the nature of the research being conducted, identify potential problem areas, and take corrective action.”
“With improved oversight, the NIH might have been able to take more timely corrective actions to mitigate the risks associated with this type of research,” the report added.