Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Thursday that former CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield was ‘absolutely incorrect’ when he claimed he had been sidelined for supporting the lab leak theory COVID.
Fauci also insisted that he had “kept a completely open mind” about the origins of COVID-19, although he has said to date that “the evidence weighs more likely towards one, namely a natural event. about the virus leaking from a lab in Wuhan, China.
Fauci braved Fox News Channel on Thursday afternoon to appear on Your World with Neil Cavuto and was asked about the testimony Redfield gave Wednesday before the House GOP-led committee on COVID.
Redfield accused of being left out of a call with prominent virologists “because I was told they wanted a single story and obviously I had a different point of view.”
“This call was organized by a group of evolutionary virologists to discuss the possibility that this is in fact a virus that was actually engineered. So I haven’t put anyone on the list for this call, nor am I taking anyone [off]” Fauci told Cavuto.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Thursday that former CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield was ‘absolutely incorrect’ when he claimed he had been sidelined for supporting the lab leak theory COVID.
Former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield testified Wednesday before the GOP-led House Special Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and said he was excluded from a call with prominent virologists because he supported the COVID lab leak theory
He also said Redfield’s complaint made no sense because “half of the people on the call were of the opinion that it could be a lab leak”.
“So his rationale for why he was kicked out is an invalid rationale,” Fauci said. “So it’s really unfortunate that he made those statements. He’s a good guy, I’ve known him for years, I’m so…I’m really a little confused why he said that, which was completely wrong.
Fauci, who retired from government service in December, has become the political right’s top punching bag for America’s COVID response, despite having worked under both Republican President Donald Trump and the Democratic President Joe Biden.
Redfield served as director of the CDC during the Trump administration and held that position at the start of the pandemic.
Rep. Jim Jordan, a member of the oversight committee who sat on Wednesday’s coronavirus pandemic select subcommittee meeting, made a number of complaints about Fauci, including COVID-19 “most definitely came” from a lab that used US taxpayer dollars to fund gain-of-function research.
Jordan insisted Fauci was leaving Redfield calls to cover this up.
“What was Dr. Fauci doing? He was trying to cover his butt,’ Jordan said. “That’s why he did what he did to the exclusion of a brilliant guy who ran our CDC, kept him out,” Jordan said of Redfield.
Workers unload fish at the market in Wuhan in April 2020. Fauci criticized the Chinese for immediately emptying the wet market where the initial COVID outbreak occurred, suggesting it was a cover-up
Along with Cavuto, Fauci said he would testify before Jordan and before the committee.
“Of course I would Neil, I told you before, I would be more than happy to testify,” the retired civil servant said.
But he also took aim at Jordan’s performance during the hearing.
“And this circus that went on in the hearing accusing me of trying to convince people one way or another, was really very unseemly and had nothing to do with reality,” Fauci explained.
Fauci argued there was a Chinese cover-up, but it started in the wet market where COVID would have started.
“What the Chinese did as soon as the outbreak happened, they completely cleaned out the wet market of animals that shouldn’t have been there to begin with,” Fauci said.
“So if there’s anything the Chinese are covering up, they’re covering up the fact that they broke their own rules about getting wild animals from the forest or whatever, putting it in touch with the man, that was the real problem,” Fauci added.
Fauci’s comments came a week after FBI Director Christopher Wray said the origins of COVID are “most likely a potential lab incident.”
This followed a report from the Ministry of Energy which said the origin of the virus was most likely a lab leak in Wuhan, but the conclusion was drawn with little confidence.
