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Senate Hearing Considers NIH Budget And State Of Medical Research
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 26: Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing May 26, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The committee will hear testimony about the NIH FY22 budget and the current state of medical research.
Dr. Anthony Fauci believes COVID-19 possibly originated from a virus that killed three miners in China in 2012 after they visited a bat-infested cave. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is known to be the coronavirus that killed the miners in 2012. Fauci demanded on Thursday that China provide the miners' medical data, as well as the records of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) researchers who became ill with an unexplained COVID-like condition in November 2019.
Fauci calls China to release Wuhan lab workers' medical records
President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser and the longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Anthony Fauci, went on to argue that the virus escaping from a lab is still not the most logical explanation for COVID-19's emergence. Despite some rejecting the lab leak notion as a conspiracy theory, it has gained popularity in recent weeks, although investigations are still underway and the COVID-19 origins remain unknown.
Per Newsweek via MSN, confirmation that WIV laboratory personnel were infected with COVID-19 long before the first reported cases would certainly increase the chances that SARS-CoV-2 escaped the lab. SARS-CoV-2 was detected in 2020 on samples from four of the six Chinese miners who became ill after visiting a cave in 2012. It's possible, though, that the miners were infected with a virus that was linked to the one that infected the miners.
Many coronaviruses were eventually identified in the cave by Chinese researchers, including RaTG13, the closest known relative of SARS-CoV-2. If it hadn't been for the effort of a group of internet researchers known as DRASTIC, or the Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19, the fact that the miners died of a SARS-like disease would not have been discovered.
Despite WIV Director Shi Zhengli's claims that the men died from a cave fungus, the group discovered that the miners had tested positive for SARS-like antibodies following a thorough review of a Chinese academic publication database. Fauci's demand that China reveals the medical information drew a quick rebuke from his critics.
On the same day, Fauci gave an MSNBC interview in which he stated that discovering the COVID-19 origin was "clearly in China's best interest." This sparked outrage. Critics pointed out that if the virus was discovered to have escaped from WIV, China would be better off concealing its origins.
Chinese whistleblower virologist blasts Dr. Anthony Fauci
A Chinese virologist who fled to the United States after asserting that China hid the COVID-19 outbreak alleges that a trove of Anthony Fauci's emails validates her bioweapons assertions. Dr. Li Meng-Yan claims the messages, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, show the White House virus specialist was aware of the possibility of the virus being manufactured but publicly downplayed it.
Fauci finally conceded today that the "lab-made" COVID-19 idea may have some merit after the emails were released, as per The Sun. Senator Rand Paul and Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene attacked the top doctor when his emails surfaced, while Candace Owens wants him tried and imprisoned.
In the Wuhan laboratory, where COVID-19 is increasingly assumed to have begun, Paul alleged Fauci circulated misinformation about American-funded research. Li released two reports on the Chinese viral tests last year and one this year on Zenodo, both of which were published without peer review.
The Wuhan lab leak explanation was initially dismissed as a conspiracy theory promoted by the extreme right to blame China for the pandemic. But things changed on May 26 when President Joe Biden, after allegedly shutting down an earlier investigation into the COVID-19 origins, launched a reassessment of the lab leak theory.
Related Article: Fauci Email Leaks: Republicans Urge Infectious Disease Expert to Testify Against COVID-19 Origins Probe
