So Dr. Anthony Fauci in the pandemic’s early months was casting doubt on the lab-leak theory of COVID’s origins — even as he was also receiving at least one alert from a genomic researcher that “some of the features look (potentially) engineered.”
Notably, he forwarded “anti-conspiracy theory” articles that quoted Peter Daszak — the head of a US nonprofit that used some grant money from Fauci’s agency to fund coronavirus work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology — attacking the lab-leak idea. Daszak and others wrote Fauci personally to thank him for dumping on the theory.
We still don’t know if the virus evolved normally and somehow jumped to humans, but Chinese researchers have been searching hard for evidence of the bug in some intermediate species (as the “natural” theory would require) and have so far come up empty.
Meanwhile, Beijing refuses to cooperate in any meaningful independent investigation — and even launched a trade war with Australia after Aussie leaders called for such a probe.
For a year, we’ve been told to “trust the science” — but Fauci, our leading scientist, made declarations that certain theories were “debunked” when they weren’t. Why did he back up Daszak’s self-serving dismissal of the lab theory with no real evidence — when, in fact, he was getting e-mail evidence to the contrary?
These revelations don’t ease the growing concern that US taxpayer cash might have helped unleash this plague.
All of it is just more reason for the Biden administration to get to the bottom of the mystery — and make getting China to cooperate at last the No. 1 issue in talks with Beijing. And all the more reason, as we’ve argued before, that Fauci needs to stop being the spokesperson for America’s pandemic response.