According to a new report, in the early days of the epidemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci frequently disputed the hypothesis that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese biological facility.
He testified last week that he was hesitant because he was concerned that conjecture about the virus’s origins might “raise tensions” with China.
Fauci’s remarks came during a seven-hour deposition in connection with a lawsuit brought against the Biden administration by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana.
Fauci’s unwillingness to embrace the lab leak idea may have ultimately significantly hindered the US government’s efforts to research the pandemic’s origins.
A rising amount of evidence suggests that the epidemic was caused by a lab breach.
In October, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee issued a study stating that an unintentional leak from the Wuhan lab was actually the “most likely” origin of the outbreak. This was a major contrast from years of mainstream media reports which attempted to downplay and discredit the theory.
Fauci has come under fire for not just ignoring the lab leak idea, but also for funding research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Fauci denied collaborating with social media businesses on virus-related information, although he did confess that his daughter worked as a software engineer at Twitter until last year.
He also stated that he talked with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about launching a campaign to promote coronavirus vaccinations.
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