The nation’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted he is “not convinced” that COVID-19 developed naturally. He is also calling for a more in-depth investigation into where the virus came from.
Fox News reports that when asked earlier this month by PolitiFact’s Katie Sanders at the “United Facts of America: A Festival of Fact-Checking” event if he was confident it developed naturally, Fauci replied that he did not.
“No, actually. 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.
“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.
Fauci was also asked by Sen. Rand Paul at a Senate hearing last week to “categorically” say whether or not coronavirus could have originated in a lab.
“I do not have any accounting of what the Chinese may have done, and I’m fully in favor of any further investigation of what went on in China,” he said.
Fauci’s recent remarks differ from what he has previously stated about the origins of COVID-19. Fauci has largely dismissed the theory that the virus was the result of a lab leak.
The coronavirus had initially been reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. Many people believe it could have begun in a lab there and somehow got out.
The World Health Organization issued a statement just last week claiming a lab leak was “highly unlikely” and backs the animal to human transmission theory.
