Dr. Anthony Fauci Says Coronavirus Probably Wasn’t Created In Wuhan Lab

Dr. Anthony Fauci

Top White House coronavirus task force doctor Anthony Fauci said Monday that theories that the Chinese coronavirus was created in a laboratory in Wuhan were not likely, contradicting statements made by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

‘This could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated’

“If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what’s out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated,” Fauci told National Geographic.

“Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species,” he added.

 

RELATED: Bombshell: U.S. Intel Says Obama Gave Millions Of Dollars To Wuhan Lab That Produced Coronavirus

Fauci also said it was not likely the disease was brought into the lab from the wild and later escaped by mistake, which is the opposite of what Pompeo told ABC’s This Week recently, when he said there was “enormous evidence” COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab.

“China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories,” Pompeo said to host Martha Raddatz. “These are not the first times that we’ve had a world exposed to viruses as a result of failures in a Chinese lab”

“While the intelligence community continues to do its work, they should continue to do that, and verify so that we are certain, I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan,” the Secretary of State added.

Fauci Contradicts Trump

In April, President Trump said he also believed coronavirus came from the Chinese lab.

“Yes. Yes, I have,” the president responded when asked if he believed COVID-19 could have originated in the lab. “I think that the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves, because they’re like the public relations agency for China.”

 

RELATED: Dr. Fauci Says The Private Sector Saved Us On Coronavirus Testing, Government ‘System’ Couldn’t Handle It

“They shouldn’t be making excuses when people make horrible mistakes, especially mistakes that are causing hundreds of thousands of people around the world to die,” Trump added. “I think the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves.”

On Thursday, the Office of Director of National Intelligence issued statement saying there is little to no evidence the coronavirus was genetically modified.

“The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified,” said the top U.S. spy agency. “The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.”

is a professional writer and editor with over 15 years of experience in conservative media and Republican politics. He... More about John Hanson

Mentioned in this article: