Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday did not dismiss a theory that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory, saying he has “a completely open mind about that, despite people saying that I don’t.”
However, the retiring infectious disease expert added that the evidence still points to a bat most likely transmitted the disease to humans.
“If you look at the preponderance of evidence that has been accumulated by international group of highly respected evolutionary virologists, they feel, and they’ve written peer reviewed papers on that, that the evidence strongly points to this being a natural occurrence of a jumping of a virus from a bat to an animal species to human, hasn’t been definitively proven. But the evidence on that is pretty strong,” Dr. Fauci said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Having said that, we still all have to keep an open mind as to what the origin is.”
The origin of the virus that has killed millions of people across the globe is still a debated topic among the medical community and has come under scrutiny by U.S. lawmakers in recent years amid pandemic-era lockdowns.
Mr. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a position he’s held for nearly 40 years. He is also the chief medical adviser to President Biden.
Mr. Fauci plans to step down from his posts at the end of this year.
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For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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