Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield said President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is clinging “tightly” to theories other than the hypothesis that the coronavirus escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China.
Redfield, who helmed the CDC during former President Donald Trump’s administration, has been one of the most outspoken proponents of the lab leak theory. He insisted Fauci sunk his teeth “into a bone” regarding the possibilities of COVID-19’s origin and has refused to let go.
“Other individuals, Tony Fauci, for example, would prefer to support that it evolved from nature,” Redfield said in an interview with Fox News, released on Tuesday. “I think Tony is holding on to this hypothesis tightly. Why would that be? Sometimes scientists bite into a bone on a hypothesis. It’s hard for them to move on.”
FORMER CDC DIRECTOR SAYS HE RECEIVED DEATH THREATS FOR SUPPORTING WUHAN LAB LEAK THEORY
The former health authority noted that bat-to-human transmission is “not consistent” with how similar viruses have been picked up by humans in the past.
“When I said before that I didn’t think it was biologically plausible that COVID-19 went from a bat to some unknown animal into man and now had become one of the most infectious viruses,” he said, “That’s not consistent with how other coronaviruses have come into the human species. And, it does suggest that there’s an alternative hypothesis that it went from a bat virus, got into a laboratory, wherein the laboratory it was taught, educated, it evolved so that it became a virus that could efficiently transmit human to human.”
“My professional opinion as a virologist … that’s the hypothesis I support,” he added.
Redfield also railed against the World Health Organization for its May 30 report after questions about the Chinese government’s influence on the proceedings. At the time, the WHO team concluded the virus was “possible to likely” through a direct animal spillover; “likely to very likely” through an intermediate animal host; “possible” through cold/food chain products; and “extremely unlikely” through a lab escape.
“Clearly, they were incapable of compelling China to adhere to the treaty agreements that they have on global health because they didn’t do that,” Redfield said of the controversial investigation. “Clearly, they allowed China to define the group of scientists that could come and investigate. That’s not consistent with their role.”
Earlier this month, Redfield went public and said he received death threats from the scientific community for supporting the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis.
“I was threatened and ostracized because I proposed another hypothesis,” he told Vanity Fair. “I expected it from politicians. I didn’t expect it from science.”
On March 26, Redfield made headlines when he revealed he was a proponent of the theory that COVID-19 escaped from the Wuhan lab accidentally and hinted the mishap followed “gain-of-function” research, which intends to bolster the infectious capacity of viruses.
“That’s my own view. It’s only an opinion. I’m allowed to have opinions now,” he said during an interview with CNN. “You know, I am of the point of view that I still think the most likely etiology of this pathology in Wuhan was from a laboratory. You know, escaped. Other people don’t believe that. That’s fine. Science will eventually figure it out. It’s not unusual for respiratory pathogens that are being worked on in a laboratory to infect the laboratory worker.”
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Over the past few weeks, the lab leak hypothesis has gained credibility after the Wall Street Journal reported three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of virology fell ill in November 2019, shortly before the start of the pandemic. Biden has since ordered the intelligence community to “redouble” its efforts in discovering how the virus emerged.
