Fauci: Lab Leak Unlikely, ‘Much More Likely’ COVID-19 from Animal Outbreak

Biden chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” that the theory COVID-19 pandemic started from a leak in a Chinese laboratory is not likely.

Anchor Ari Melber said, “People do want to know where this thing came from. President Biden also talked about an intelligence process for that. There’s been some information. Intelligence agencies disagree, which sometimes happens. The FBI believes in the theory this came from a lab in China. Is the FBI right or wrong in your view, and will we ever get to the bottom of this?”

Fauci said, “Ari, if you look at the virologists, not the people who want to politicalize this, look at the virologists who actually know about evolutionary virology and biology, they tell you it’s much, much more likely this was a natural evolution from an animal, likely a bat to another intermediate host, to a human. Until you know for sure, you have to leave open all possibilities. That’s where something like the lab leak type of a hypothesis comes about. You can’t rule it out right now, but if you look at the evidence, namely the historical and other evidence, it’s more likely one than the other. It’s more likely it’s a natural outbreak from an animal, although we must keep all possibilities open.”

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