Reps charge at Fauci for ‘disproving’ Coronavirus lab leak theory
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As part of the select subcommittee probe, Republican lawmakers re-requested evidence from the Biden administration on the origins of the COVID-19 epidemic in February.
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Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci speaks during an unscheduled briefing after a Coronavirus Task Force meeting at the White House on April 5, 2020, in Washington, DC. (AFP)
Republican lawmakers have accused former US chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci of requesting a publication meant to disprove the hypothesis that the SARS-CoV-2 virus leaked from a laboratory in China, as per a recent report from the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Epidemic Majority Staff.
"New evidence released by the Select Subcommittee today suggests that Dr. Fauci ‘prompted’ the drafting of a publication that would ‘disprove’ the lab leak theory, the authors of this paper skewed available evidence to achieve that goal," the memo said, as reported by Fox News on Sunday.
According to the memo, Fauci was informed about the danger of COVID-19 allegedly leaking from a lab in Wuhan, China, during a phone discussion with numerous scientists in February 2020.
Despite this, "Fauci 'prompted' Dr. Kristian Andersen, Professor, Scripps Research (Scripps), to publish [a paper titled 'The] Proximal Origin [of SARS-CoV-2'] and that the purpose was to 'disprove' any lab leak explanation," as per the document.
As part of the select subcommittee probe, Republican lawmakers re-requested evidence from the Biden administration on the origins of the COVID-19 epidemic in February. They also requested a confidential briefing on the subject from the US intelligence community.
This comes shortly after a report published by the Global Times on Sunday disclosed frustrations among World Health Organization (WHO) senior experts due to the US reluctance to disclose more information on the origins of the Coronavirus.
Last week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said, "Given the US intelligence community's track record of making up stories, there is little, if any, credibility in their conclusions. The US will not succeed in discrediting China by rehashing the 'lab leak' theory, but will only hurt the US' own reputation."
This comes as the US has been dodging serious questions regarding Fort Detrick and its military biological labs spread across the world. Instead, it has misled the public by constantly employing a threatening voice to assert its dominance, experts argue.
The US Senate passed a bill earlier this month demanding the Biden administration to declassify intelligence regarding any purported potential links between China's Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origins of the COVID-19 epidemic.
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