Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield claims he was on the receiving end of death threats from fellow scientists after he voiced support for the theory that the coronavirus leaked from a Wuhan lab.
Redfield made the shocking allegations in an interview with Vanity Fair.
This past March, the former head of the CDC told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta that he believed the virus accidentally escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“I do not believe this somehow came from a bat to a human,” Redfield said at the time.
“Normally, when a pathogen goes from a zoo to human, it takes a while for it to figure out how to become more and more efficient in human to human transmission,” he explained.
Redfield added, “I just don’t think this makes biological sense.”
RELATED: New York Times COVID Reporter Claimed Wuhan Lab Leak Theory Has ‘Racist Roots’
Ex-CDC Director Gets Death Threats
Redfield’s comments theorizing that COVID escaped from a lab in Wuhan, which he was sure to point out were simply his opinion, received a fair share of skepticism from the media at the time.
His comments were presented repeatedly as being ‘without evidence.’
Some in the scientific community though, according to Redfield, started issuing death threats.
“After the interview aired, death threats flooded his inbox,” Vanity Fair reported. “The vitriol came not just from strangers who thought he was being racially insensitive but also from prominent scientists, some of whom used to be his friends.”
Racially insensitive?
Because it’s more woke to assert that the eating habits of the Chinese are more likely to have created a worldwide pandemic than say their Communist government?
CDC Director Robert Redfield received death threats from *fellow scientists* after suggesting in March covid-19 could have came from the lab pic.twitter.com/Ks36HidLZi
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 3, 2021
One scientist in particular said he should just “wither and die,” the outlet revealed.
Redfield said he was rather shocked by the response from the scientific community, which has become increasingly political.
“I was threatened and ostracized because I proposed another hypothesis,” he explained. “I expected it from politicians. I didn’t expect it from science.”
Dr. Robert Redfield told CNN it was possible the COVID pandemic escaped a lab, and his friends and colleagues reacted with hostility.https://t.co/u67cG5uPAW
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 3, 2021
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Wuhan Lab Leak Theory Gaining Traction Now
Another prominent voice that dismissed Redfield’s theory that COVID-19 escaped from a Wuhan lab is Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Following Redfield’s interview with CNN in March, Fauci scoffed at the notion.
“The issue that would have someone think it’s possible to have escaped from a lab would mean that it essentially entered the outside human population already well-adapted to humans, suggesting that it was adapted in the lab,” Fauci said.
“However, the alternative explanation, which most public health individuals go by, is that this virus was actually circulating in China, likely in Wuhan, for a month or more before they were clinically recognized at the end of December of 2019.”
Fauci would also insist that there are other alternatives to Redfield’s opinion, which he says are theories “most people hold by.”
He still holds firm in his belief that the virus came from a bat in the Wuhan market rather than a lab, but did leave the door open to the possibility that Redfield could be right.
“That’s right, the “bat lady” of the Wuhan lab — the one who received funding via a U.S. contractor from Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — experimented with furin sites to make coronaviruses more infectious for humans.” https://t.co/wQKdE265UJ
— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) June 4, 2021
Redfield’s theory has been gaining attention of late.
Just weeks ago, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee said there is “significant circumstantial evidence” that the COVID-19 outbreak emanated from a Wuhan Institute of Virology leak.
The New York Times also reported on President Biden’s call for further investigation into the virus’ origins, claiming it shows “the administration takes seriously the possibility that the virus was accidentally leaked from a lab.”
Fox News host Tucker Carlson blasted officials for helping to ‘cover up’ the theory that COVID-19 escaped from a lab.
“The lab leak theory, it turns out, was never crazy. It was always likely true,” Carlson insisted.
“The Chinese government covered this up,” accused Carlson.
“Here’s the worst and most shocking part if you’re an American: Some within the U.S. government helped them cover it up,” he added.
“They knew all of this was going on. But they buried the truth too. Because their interests were aligned with the interest of the Chinese government.”
Recently unearthed emails show leading virus experts warning Fauci that the virus may have been created in a lab even as he publicly dismissed such claims.
The revelation led Carlson to assert that Fauci belongs under criminal investigation for allegedly lying to Congress.
#Thread Full Tucker Carlson Monologue About Dr. Fauci’s Emails
“Are Peter Daszak and Tony Fauci under criminal investigation? We can only hope they are. They certainly deserve it.” pic.twitter.com/T6iIF8cuA3
— The Columbia Bugle ?? (@ColumbiaBugle) June 3, 2021
“Throughout 2020, the notion that the novel coronavirus leaked from a lab was off-limits,” Vanity Fair writes. “Those who dared to push for transparency say toxic politics and hidden agendas kept us in the dark.”
The COVID pandemic, if the Wuhan lab leak theory is ultimately proven true, will go down as one of the worst failures of the intelligence community since 9/11.
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