Fauci says COVID-19 likely did not come from Wuhan lab
WASHINGTON • Dr. Anthony Fauci insists it is “much more likely” that COVID-19 originated in nature rather than from the Wuhan lab, again insisting that the National Institutes of Health had never funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has also admitted he doesn’t actually know everything that goes on at the NIH.
The NIH recently concluded EcoHealth Alliance violated NIH guidelines when conducting bat coronavirus research while working with the lab, but Fauci continued to insist that this wasn’t gain-of-function research during a Senate hearing on Thursday during questioning by Sen. Rand Paul.
“So what you’re doing is defining away gain of function. You’re simply saying it doesn’t exist because you changed the definition on the NIH website,” the Republican said.
“This is terrible, and you’re completely trying to escape the idea that we should do something about trying to prevent a pandemic from leaking from a lab. The preponderance of evidence now points to this coming from a lab. And what you’ve done is changed the definition on your website to try to cover your ass, basically.”
Fauci accused Paul of “egregious misrepresentations” and said,“I don’t think I’d be able to refute all of them, but just a couple of them.”
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released an assessment this summer stating that one U.S. intelligence agency assessed with “moderate confidence” that COVID-19 most likely emerged from a Chinese government lab in Wuhan.
Editor’s note: The original version of this story incorrectly stated that Fauci said COVID-19 likely came from the Wuhan lab.
Anthony Fauci