Category: Corona Virus Vaccine

Politics

By Josh Christenson

Published June 3, 2024, 5:45 p.m. ET

Former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci contradicted several of his past statements from the COVID-19 pandemic when he testified before Congress on Monday.

The former top pandemic adviser to two presidential administrations, who retired from NIAID in 2022 after nearly four decades at the head of NIAID, faced sharp questions about the reversals from Republican members of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Americans were aggressively bullied, shamed, and silenced for merely questioning or debating issues such as social distancing, masks, vaccines, or the origins of COVID, Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said in his opening remarks to Fauci, 83.

You took the position that you presented the science and your words came across as final and as infallible in matters pertaining to the pandemic, the chairman added before he and other Republican panel members recounted those statements.

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The key moments when Dr. Anthony Fauci contradicted himself during heated COVID hearing - New York Post

As new variants of the coronavirus continue to gain traction, doctors and researchers are bracing for a potential rise in cases this summer. KP.2, one of these variants, now accounts for 28.5 percent of cases, and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a small increase in Covid-related emergency room visits and positive tests.

Heres what to know about symptoms, testing and treatment if you do fall ill:

Theres no evidence that symptoms of the new dominant variants, including those collectively known as the FLiRT variants, are any different than other recent strains of the virus, said Aubree Gordon, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Michigan.

The symptoms still include sneezing, congestion, headaches, sore muscles, nausea or vomiting. Many people also report exhaustion and a general blah feeling.

In general, the more immunity youve built up from vaccination or past infections, the milder your next bout with the virus is likely to be. (Though its possible to experience more intense symptoms with a new infection than youve had in past Covid cases.)

The symptoms of Covid can look similar to those caused by allergies or other infections. The best way to tell the difference is to test.

In an ideal world, experts said, people would take a Covid test as soon as they develop symptoms or learn they were exposed, and then test again a day or two later. But if you only have a limited number of at-home rapid tests, there are a few ways to maximize their usefulness: Test immediately if you have a fever and a cough, said Dr. Davey Smith, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Diego.

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A Summer Guide to Covid Testing, Symptoms and Treatment - The New York Times

Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified on his role in overseeing the U.S. response to COVID-19 before the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. He spoke on the success of the vaccine rollout and addressed several claims that were seriously distorted, including accusations he tried to cover-up the possibility the virus originated from a lab. Several topics were addressed during the hearing, including vaccine efficacy, effectiveness of public health guidelines, funding provided to labs in China, and countering misinformation and disinformation. close

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Dr. Fauci Testifies on U.S. Response to COVID-19 Pandemic - C-SPAN

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Anthony Fauci faces questions during contentious COVID-19 hearing in the House - USA TODAY

Anthony S. Fauci defended himself Monday against claims that he orchestrated a coverup of the coronavirus pandemics origins, with the former government official rejecting some allegations as simply preposterous.

The prominent infectious-disease expert, who served as a senior leader at the National Institutes of Health for four decades before leaving government at the end of 2022, said Republicans have distorted emails between himself and other scientists as they discussed whether a laboratory leak of the coronavirus was possible.

We spend our whole life trying to determine the causes of infectious diseases, and stop them to protect the American people, Fauci said, adding that he did not pressure colleagues to reach a conclusion about the origins of the virus while disputing other Republican charges.

The former health adviser in the Trump and Biden administrations testified Monday before the House panel investigating the nations coronavirus response. The contentious hearing unfolded for 3 hours. It came amid a battle between the panels Republican and Democratic leaders over whether its focus on Fauci is necessary to understand the viruss possible origins, or a waste of time that is propagating unproven theories about the pandemic and damaging confidence in public health.

It is the first time Fauci has faced a GOP-led panel publicly to answer questions about the covid-19 pandemic, which is linked to the deaths of more than 1 million Americans. Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees U.S. health agencies, also joined the hearing. Fauci privately testified before the lawmakers for 14 hours in January.

The panel has not found evidence that Fauci led a coverup or that the virus leaked from a laboratory. Most U.S. intelligence entities probing the pandemic favor the theory that the virus emerged naturally, via animal-to-human transmission.

Republicans on Monday pushed on the relationship between Fauci and EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit organization that received funding from Faucis agency to conduct risky virus research in Wuhan, China. Federal officials halted funding to EcoHealth last month, saying the organization failed to monitor and report on that work. Republicans also focused on David Morens, a former Fauci deputy who deleted emails and took other steps to evade federal records law as he emailed with EcoHealth officials and other colleagues.

We have senior officials from your office, in their own writing, discussing breaking federal law, deleting official records and sharing private government information with grant recipients, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), chairman of the panel, said in prepared remarks. Fauci distanced himself from Morens, saying he knew nothing about his former colleagues actions regarding EcoHealth or his emails, and rebuked him for violating NIH policies.

Democrats rallied around Fauci, defending the 83-year-old scientists government service and saying that his work to combat HIV and other viruses saved countless lives in the United States and around the world. Fauci testified that he and his family have faced persistent death threats over allegations that he played a role in sparking the covid-19 pandemic.

Republicans have wasted significant time and taxpayer money pursuing conspiracies about the pandemic, said Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), the top Democrat on the Energy Committees oversight panel. She called on lawmakers to pivot to other efforts, such as stalled legislation to reauthorize funding for public health preparedness programs. Its not too late for Republicans to join us, Castor said.

In an interview after the hearing, Rep. Raul Ruiz (Calif.), the covid panels top Democrat, told The Washington Post that he did not learn a single thing from the session, urging the GOP-led panel to drop its narrative that Fauci and his colleagues covered up the viruss possible creation in a laboratory.

The hearing with Fauci, widely viewed as the face of the United States coronavirus response, drew a circus-style environment to a covid panel that has often struggled for attention as the public has moved on from the pandemic. A line of would-be spectators snaked around the Rayburn House Office Building, seeking a seat in the standing-room-only hearing; a person sitting in the front row wore a T-shirt emblazoned with JAIL FAUCI.

Lawmakers also packed the roster, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a member of the covid panel who skipped seven of its last 10 hearings. Greene also briefly brought the hearing to a halt by accusing Fauci of wrongdoing with lab experiments on beagles and other matters, saying he should be in prison and refusing to address him as a doctor. Democrats protested Greenes accusations, and Wenstrup rebuked her for violating decorum. Fauci expressed puzzlement over why Greene was invoking beagles at a hearing dedicated to the covid response.

Republicans also pressed Fauci on broader pandemic issues, such as when he privately told the panel in January that the federal governments recommendation for six-foot social distancing sort of just appeared in early 2020 and that the choice of distance wasnt based on data.

Fauci said Monday he meant there was no clinical trial to settle on the distance of six feet, and that officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who crafted the recommendation were basing the distance on early expectations of how the virus spread. The answer did not satisfy Republicans, asking why Fauci did not push CDC officials to change the recommendation as it became clear that virus particles could float in the air for hours, particularly in enclosed environments, and that six feet of social distancing alone would not be sufficient to protect against infection without other measures such as masking and ventilation.

This six-foot rule crippled businesses, it allowed students to stay at home and not learn, Rep. John Joyce (R-Pa.) said. Other countries and the World Health Organization recommended a distance of about three feet of social distance, and experts said a similar measure in the United States would have allowed schools to reopen more quickly.

Leading up to the hearing, public health groups had warned that health officials such as Fauci were being harassed for their pandemic work, and urged the panel to focus more on shoring up confidence in the field. Some prominent scientists have accused the panel of feeding conspiracies and intimidating virologists, saying that Republicans are damaging a workforce that will be needed when the next pandemic inevitably arrives.

Other outside experts said they understand the panels questions even if they dont think a covid coverup exists at the highest levels of government.

I dont agree with the tone and sort of breathlessness behind Wenstrup and other Republicans questions, said Holden Thorp, editor of the journal Science. At the same time, I think that the scientific community has made a number of mistakes that dont look super good for us all [and] that have made it easier for them to make this case.

Thorp testified before the panel in April about how academic journals had approached their coronavirus coverage and whether officials such as Fauci had pressured them to downplay the lab-leak theory, a charge that Thorp denied. Like many of the coronavirus panels recent hearings before Monday, it drew scant attention, including from Republicans who had called the hearing; just three of the panels nine GOP members attended.

Reached after the hearing, public health experts generally said they felt Fauci performed well amid a barrage of confrontational questions.

Kenneth W. Bernard, who served as a special assistant to the president for security and health during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, said it was a good hearing for Dr. Fauci and that he thought Wenstrups questions were fair though he dismissed other Republicans inquiries as predictably closed-minded, and Greene particularly as an idiot.

Chris Meekins, a former Trump administration official who worked on biopreparedness, credited Fauci with navigating highly telegraphed and well-worn lines of attack from Republicans. But Meekins warned that the GOP-led panel would probably dig through Faucis lengthy testimony to search for new contradictions or errors, as they have with Faucis different definitions of gain-of-function research.

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Fauci dismisses 'preposterous' allegations that he led covid coverup - The Washington Post

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the former government scientist both celebrated and despised for his work on Covid, on Monday forcefully denied Republican allegations that he had helped fund research that sparked the pandemic or had covered up the possibility it originated in a laboratory, calling the accusations absolutely false and simply preposterous.

In an occasionally testy appearance before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, Dr. Fauci read aloud an email from February 2020 in which he urged a prominent scientist who was then suspicious about a lab leak to determine if his concerns are validated and if so, very quickly report them to the F.B.I.

It is inconceivable that anyone who reads this email could conclude that I was trying to cover up the possibility of a laboratory leak, Dr. Fauci testified.

Mondays session was the culmination of a 15-month inquiry that was billed as an investigation into the pandemics origins, but that has lately turned into a referendum on Dr. Fauci, an 83-year-old immunologist who spent more than half a century as a government scientist and became the public face of the pandemic response under two presidents.

Democrats painted Dr. Fauci as an American hero, with Representative Debbie Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, disparaging the Republican-led inquiry as a witch hunt. Republicans blamed him for school closings, mask ordinances and other invasive policies. One, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, tore into Dr. Fauci, saying, You belong in prison.

The Republican-led subcommittee is the only Congressional panel charged with weighing the origins of the worst pandemic in a century and the American policy failures that made it so devastating. Dr. Fauci, the panels most prized quarry, was at the center of a Covid response that left the country with far more deaths than many other wealthy nations.

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Fauci Grilled by Lawmakers on Masks, Vaccine Mandates and Lab Leak Theory - The New York Times

Washington Dr. Anthony Fauci testified on Monday before a Republican-led House panel investigating the origins of COVID-19 and the government's pandemic response, in a widely anticipated hearing where the intense partisan divide over the pandemic was once again on display.

The hearing marked Fauci's first public appearance on Capitol Hill since leaving government in 2022, where he served as the chief medical advisor to President Biden and as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci, who was revered by the left and denigrated by the right during the pandemic, was grilled by Republicans on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, while Democrats came to his aid, decrying what they saw as a politically motivated effort to denigrate him.

Last week, the committee released transcripts from a closed-door interview conducted with Fauci in January that it said has been a "critical component" of the committee's investigations into the origins of the virus, government policies during the pandemic and improvements to the U.S. public health system. The interview lasted 14 hours over the course of two days. The panel's chairman, Rep. Brad Wenstrup of Ohio, told CBS News that the interview and the exchanges were cordial and professional.

click to expand

GOP committee staff concluded in a memo of key takeaways that the "lab leak theory" about where the virus originated is "not a conspiracy theory," pointing to comments from Fauci during the interview that it "could be a lab leak or it could be a natural occurrence," though he noted that he believes the evidence he's seen suggests to him that it's more likely a natural occurrence.

The memo also claimed that certain pandemic policies lacked supporting scientific evidence, like the guidance to maintain a six-foot distance from others, vaccine mandates and masks for children.

Wenstrup thanked Fauci at the outset of Monday's hearing for his "willing cooperation," citing his voluntary appearance at the January interview and at Monday's hearing.

"Beginning early in 2020, you became the figurehead of public health," Wenstrup said in his opening remarks. "Americans from coast to coast and beyond listened to your words, and this is where I think we could have done better We should have been more precise, we should have used words and phrases that are accurate and not misleading. And we should have been honest, especially about what we didn't know."

The hearing quickly became more serious, as the committee chair questioned alleged misconduct that occurred under Fauci's leadership, claiming he allowed his office to be "unaccountable to the American people."

Last week, committee RepublicansdemandedFauci turn over some personal emails and questioned whether he had been communicating about official government work on his private accounts. A senior adviser to Fauci, Dr. David Morens, faced tough questioningfrom the panelin May over emails suggesting that he may have been circumventing federal Freedom of Information Act rules by using a "secret back channel" with Fauci.

"We have seen officials from your office, in their own writing, discussing breaking federal law, deleting official records, and sharing private government information with grant recipients. The office you directed and those serving under your leadership chose to flout the law and bragged about it," Wenstrup said.

Fauci distanced himself from the investigation into Morens, saying they worked in different buildings on the National Institutes of Health's campus. Morens worked with him only on helping to write some scientific papers, Fauci said, and was not an adviser to him on "institute policy or other substantive issues."

"Let me state for the record, to the best of my knowledge, I have never conducted official business using my personal email," Fauci told the committee.

Fauci said many of Morens' actions were wrong and ran afoul of agency policy. He also directly contradicted Morens' claim, quoted from an email to the EcoHealth Alliance, that Fauci was trying to protect the group. EcoHealth Alliance and its NIH funding has faced scrutiny since early during the pandemic over its ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

"I don't know where he got that, but that's not true," said Fauci.

Fauci repeated a defense he has given for years of NIH's funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology and EcoHealth Alliance. The agency's grant of $120,000 made up a small fraction of the institute's budget, Fauci said.

Fauci said the accusation that he influenced scientists working to determine whether the virus had originated in a lab by bribing them with grant money "is absolutely false and simply preposterous." He also pushed back on the claim that he tried to cover up that the virus originated in the lab, saying he has "always kept an open mind to the different possibilities."

"I cannot account, nor can anyone account, for other things that might be going on in China. Which is the reason why I have always said, and will say now, I keep an open mind as to what the origin is," he said, "but the one thing I know for sure is that the viruses that were funded by the NIH, phylogenetically, could not be the precursor of SARS-CoV-2."

California Rep. Raul Ruiz, the panel's top-ranking Democrat, blasted the subcommittee's Republican leadership for doing little to uncover new information on the origins of the virus or improve preparedness for future pandemics.

"After 15 months, the select subcommittee still does not possess a shred of evidence to substantiate these extreme allegations that Republicans have levied against Dr. Fauci for nearly four years," Ruiz said in his opening remarks.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, also came to Fauci's defense, saying House Republicans were using the subcommittee as a platform for "disinformation" about Fauci.

"House Republicans now find themselves in the familiar position where their own investigation debunks their runaway political rhetoric," Raskin said. "The investigation of Dr. Fauci shows he is an honorable public servant who has devoted his entire career to the public health and the public interest and he is not a comic book super villain."

Multiple Republican members questioned Fauci about the CDC's pandemic-era recommendations, like staying six feet apart for social distancing. Fauci acknowledged the precaution had not been studied in trials, and later turned out to be insufficient to stop spread of the virus through the air.

"We had discussions at the White House about that, we did, but this was the CDC's decision and was their decision to make and they made it," Fauci said.

The hearing intensified when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, began a line of questioning, launching a number of serious accusations against Fauci including claiming that he had committed crimes against humanity and prompting a dispute between lawmakers over decorum that briefly sidelined the hearing.

After Greene's remark, Rep. Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, called the session the "most insane hearing" he'd ever attended.

Some Republicans on the panel, including Greene, also criticized Fauci over animal experiments funded by the agency and patent royalties earned by NIH scientists. Fauci defended the animal experiments as having been vetted by NIAID and said he had earned little in royalties, aside from $120 from an antibody invented years before the pandemic.

Republicans also revisited accusations that the NIH funded so-called "gain of function" research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, defined broadly as adding or enhancing the ability of germs.

During a half-hour of questioning by committee staff at the tail end of the hearing, Fauci rejected the broader definition as encompassing a wide range of benign activities, including the way bacteria is modified to manufacture insulin.

"If you harken back to the original broad definition, it does nothing but confuse people," Fauci said, citing narrower definitions that health authorities have settled on for scrutinizing "pathogens with enhanced pandemic potential" research.

Fauci's testimony, along with the closed-door interview, are expected to be included among the subcommittee's final report on its investigation, which will come late this year.

Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.

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Fauci testifies about COVID pandemic response at heated House hearing - CBS News

Longtime government scientist Anthony Fauci pushed back against Republican accusations tying him to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic while testifying before the House Oversightand Accountability Committees Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on Monday.

In his first appearance before Congress since he retired in December 2022, Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, sought to defend himself from GOP accusations that he tried to cover up the origins of COVID-19 and used his personal email for official government work.

He said the idea that he sought to cover up a theory that the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, was simply preposterous and emphatically told the subcommittee that I do not do government business on my private email.

The subcommittee has been investigating the origins of the virus and the governments potential involvement for 15 months, but do not appear to have found anything connecting Fauci to the start of the virus in China. However, their investigation did lead to the federal government last month recommending EcoHealth Alliance, a company that received federal funding and that worked with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, be debarred.

During a contentious hearing frequently interrupted by protesters, Republican subcommittee Chair Brad Wenstrup accused Fauci of covering up the origins of the virus and trying to dissuade people that the virus came from a lab.

While the origins of the virus remain unknown despite multiple investigations, one theory is that the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, and somehow leaked from that lab, creating the global pandemic.

Fauci denied Wenstrups accusations, pointing to emails he sent in February 2022, when his colleagues first floated the idea that the virus could have had lab origins and Fauci immediately instructed his colleagues to elevate those concerns to the highest levels.

It is inconceivable that anyone who reads this email could conclude that I was trying to cover up the possibility of a laboratory leak, Fauci said, adding, I always kept an open mind to the different possibilities.

Republicans also seized on claims that Fauci used his personal email for official business, which would violatethe agencys code of conduct.

The 83-year-old immunologist told the subcommittee that to the best of my knowledge I have never conducted official business using my personal email.

Lawmakers also grilled Fauci on allegations that EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak did not keep up with reporting and monitoring requirements around experiments conducted in Wuhan, China, and omitted key information in applying for federal grants.

I repeat on the record that I am not trying to protect Daszak, Fauci told Wenstrup.

Last month, the subcommittee sought testimony from David Morens, a top NIAIDofficial, who used his personal email to communicate with Daszak and others involved in the COVID-19 origins debate.

Fauci said he did not engage in that email exchange, but Republicans were skeptical that he was unaware of their communication.

I have a hard time believing that all of this occurred without your knowledge and approval, Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., said of Morens effort to obscure the Freedom of Information Act and hide his correspondence with Daszak.

The Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittees top Democrat Kathy Castor, D-Fla., accused Republicans of playing into political conspiracy theories and purposefully smearing Fauci for political gain.

She used the hearing to advocate for lawmakers to reauthorize the expired pandemic preparedness law, which lapsed on Sept. 30 of last year. In the last few months U.S. public health agencies have been tracking anew strain of bird flu as well as continuing to monitor COVID-19.

During one of the more contentious moments in the hearing, Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene accused Fauci of not being a real doctor, telling the panel he belonged in prison.

Her remarks caused panelleadership to pause the hearing and remind members to be respectful. Wenstrup told the panelthat he instructed Greene to refer to Fauci as a doctor to which Greene replied, hes not a doctor!

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., then held up signs of Greenes previous statements in which the lawmaker said she didnt believe in evolution and that she was sure COVID-19 was created in a lab in an attempt to paint Greene as a conspiracy theorist.

Garcia lost both of his parents to COVID-19 and said he takes the origins of the virus very seriously, but argued that conspiracy theorists have obfuscated efforts to find the truth.

Democrats, however, were also quick to fire rhetorical shots.

Some of our colleagues in the House of Representatives are treating you, Dr. Fauci, like a convicted felon, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said.

Alluding to former President Donald Trump, he added, Actually, you probably wish they were treating you like a convicted felon. They treat convicted felons with love and admiration. Some of them blindly worship convicted felons.

A few Republicans tried to unsuccessfully back Fauci into a corner.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York repeatedly asked Fauci how many royalties hes earned from pharmaceutical companies since the start of the pandemic. Fauci replied that hes received about $100 from a monoclonal antibody he developed 25 years ago.

Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., accused Fauci of suppressing the lab leak theory, and said the panel had the emails to prove it. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., interjected to say the panelhas no such emails.

Michigan Democrat Debbie Dingell highlighted the harassment Fauci and his family have received since this investigation started. Fauci detailed the death threats and stalking hes received, and now its at the point where he must always have protective services. His voice brokewhen he described the threats to his three daughters.

The audience was an active participant in Mondays hearing as well. Many activists showed up, at least one wearing a Fire Fauci T-shirt. One protester who said she was adoctor interrupted the hearing so many times, accusing the National Institutes of Health of covering up the origins of the virus, that she had to be escorted from the room by Capitol Police.

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Fauci faces skeptical GOP to bat back COVID-19 accusations - Roll Call

By Alina Chan

Dr. Chan is a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard, and a co-author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19.

This article has been updated to reflect news developments.

On Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci returned to the halls of Congress and testified before the House subcommittee investigating the Covid-19 pandemic. He was questioned about several topics related to the governments handling of Covid-19, including how the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which he directed until retiring in 2022, supported risky virus work at a Chinese institute whose research may have caused the pandemic.

For more than four years, reflexive partisan politics have derailed the search for the truth about a catastrophe that has touched us all. It has been estimated that at least 25 million people around the world have died because of Covid-19, with over a million of those deaths in the United States.

Although how the pandemic started has been hotly debated, a growing volume of evidence gleaned from public records released under the Freedom of Information Act, digital sleuthing through online databases, scientific papers analyzing the virus and its spread, and leaks from within the U.S. government suggests that the pandemic most likely occurred because a virus escaped from a research lab in Wuhan, China. If so, it would be the most costly accident in the history of science.

Heres what we now know:

At the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a team of scientists had been hunting for SARS-like viruses for over a decade, led by Shi Zhengli.

A map showing the closest known relatives of SARS-CoV-2 in a mine in the Yunnan province of China and in a cave in northern Laos.

A map showing the hundreds of large cities in China and the surrounding region.

A map showing the 950 miles between Yunnan and Wuhan, and the 1,190 miles between Laos and Wuhan. There are many cities in between.

The Wuhan lab ran risky experiments to learn how SARS-like viruses might infect humans. Their research started by collecting SARS-like viruses from bats and other wild animals, as well as from people exposed to them.

Next, they would identify high-risk viruses by screening for spike proteins that facilitate infection of human cells.

Then they would create new coronaviruses by inserting spike proteins or other features that could make the viruses more infectious in humans.

Finally, they would infect human cells, civets and humanized mice with the new coronaviruses, to determine how dangerous they might be.

Ultimately, a never-before-seen SARS-like virus with a newly introduced furin cleavage site, matching the description in the Wuhan institutes Defuse proposal, caused an outbreak in Wuhan less than two years after the proposal was drafted.

In the U.S., virologists generally use stricter Biosafety Level 3 protocols, which involves using personal respirators and biosafety cabinets in combination to avoid inhaling an airborne virus, as well as wearing gloves and wraparound gowns to prevent direct contact.

The Wuhan lab was regularly working with SARS-like viruses at Biosafety Level 2, which involves work done in the open air and doesnt require masks, allowing for inhalation of viral particles, and much less protective equipment worn on the body that allows for direct skin contact.

SARSCoV2 is a stealthy virus that transmits effectively through the air, causes a range of symptoms similar to those of other common respiratory diseases and can be spread by infected people before symptoms even appear. If the virus had escaped from a BSL-2 laboratory in 2019, the leak most likely would have gone undetected until too late.

An analysis of SARS-CoV-2s evolutionary tree shows how the virus evolved as it started to spread through humans.

The viruses that infected people linked to the market fall partway down this tree, suggesting that they were most likely not the earliest form of the virus that seeded the pandemic.

Not a single infected animal has ever been confirmed at the market or in its supply chain. Without good evidence that the pandemic started at the Huanan Seafood Market, the fact that the virus emerged in Wuhan points squarely at its unique SARS-like virus laboratory.

In the SARS and MERS epidemics, scientists were able to find key pieces of evidence that demonstrated a natural origin of the virus. They found infected animals, the earliest human cases were exposed to animals, there was antibody evidence in animal traders, ancestral variants were found in animals, and there was documented trade of host animals.

For SARS-CoV-2, all of these pieces of evidence are missing.

The pandemic could have been caused by any of hundreds of virus species, at any of tens of thousands of wildlife markets, in any of thousands of cities, and in any year. But it was a SARS-like coronavirus with a unique furin cleavage site that emerged in Wuhan, less than two years after scientists, sometimes working under inadequate biosafety conditions, proposed collecting and creating viruses of that same design.

While several natural spillover scenarios remain plausible, and we still dont know enough about the full extent of virus research conducted at the Wuhan institute by Dr. Shis team and other researchers, a laboratory accident is the most parsimonious explanation of how the pandemic began.

Given what we now know, investigators should follow their strongest leads and subpoena all exchanges between the Wuhan scientists and their international partners, including unpublished research proposals, manuscripts, data and commercial orders. In particular, exchanges from 2018 and 2019 the critical two years before the emergence of Covid-19 are very likely to be illuminating (and require no cooperation from the Chinese government to acquire), yet they remain beyond the publics view more than four years after the pandemic began.

Whether the pandemic started on a lab bench or in a market stall, it is undeniable that U.S. federal funding helped to build an unprecedented collection of SARS-like viruses at the Wuhan institute, as well as contributing to research that enhanced them. Advocates and funders of the institutes research, including Dr. Fauci, should cooperate with the investigation to help identify and close the loopholes that allowed such dangerous work to occur. The world must not continue to bear the intolerable risks of research with the potential to cause pandemics.

A successful investigation of the pandemics root cause would have the power to break a decades-long scientific impasse on pathogen research safety, determining how governments will spend billions of dollars to prevent future pandemics. A credible investigation would also deter future acts of negligence and deceit by demonstrating that it is indeed possible to be held accountable for causing a viral pandemic. Last but not least, people of all nations need to see their leaders and especially, their scientists heading the charge to find out what caused this world-shaking event. Restoring public trust in science and government leadership requires it.

A thorough investigation by the U.S. government could unearth more evidence while spurring whistleblowers to find their courage and seek their moment of opportunity. It would also show the world that U.S. leaders and scientists are not afraid of what the truth behind the pandemic may be.

Alina Chan (@ayjchan) is a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard, and a co-author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19. She was a member of the Pathogens Project, which the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists organized to generate new thinking on responsible, high-risk pathogen research.

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Opinion | Why the Pandemic Probably Started in a Lab, in 5 Key Points - The New York Times

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on Monday denied attempting to suppress the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic began as a result of a lab leak in Wuhan, China, during his opening statement before the House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Lawmakers proceeded to grill Fauci throughout the hearing on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's six-feet distancing rule, the masking of schoolchildren and other pandemic-era restrictions.

Fauci testified affirmatively each time when asked by Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, if business closures, church closures, school closures and stay at home order were justified, adding that "again, this was when we were trying to stop the tsunami of deaths that were occurring early on how long you kept them going is debatable."

Asked again about mask mandates, including those for children under the age of 5, Fauci said those were in the context of the time "when 5,000 people a day were dying."

HIGH-RANKING FAUCI ADVISER USED PERSONAL EMAIL TO AVOID FOIA REQUESTS, DISCUSS COVID ORIGIN

Dr. Anthony Fauci is sworn-in before testifying before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic at the Rayburn House Office Building on June 3, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

"Mask mandates for children under the age of five? Theres scientific evidence supporting that?" the congressman asked.

"There was no study that did masks on kids before," Fauci admitted. "You couldnt do the study. You had to respond to an epidemic that was killing 4-5,000 Americans a day."

Fauci also attempted to clarify an earlier statement that the six-foot social distancing rule "just appeared," telling committee members that "it actually came from the CDC."

"The CDC was responsible for those kinds of guidelines for schools, not me. So when I said that, it just appeared. It appeared. Was there any science behind it? What I meant by no science behind it is that there wasn't a controlled trial. That said, compare six foot with three feet with ten feet. So there wasn't that scientific evaluation of it. What I believe the CDC used for their reason to say six feet is that studies years ago showed that when you're dealing with droplets, which at the time that the CDC made that recommendation, it was felt that the transmission was primarily through droplet, not aerosol, which is incorrect because we know now aerosol does play a role. That's the reason why they did it. It had little to do with me since I didn't make the recommendation."

Fauci also defended vaccine mandates for students, employees and the military by stating, "Vaccines save lives. It is very, very clear that vaccines have saved hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions worldwide."

"In the beginning, it clearly prevented infection in a certain percentage of people but the durability of its ability to prevent infection was not long. It was measured in months," he added.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., pressed Fauci on past comments he made during an appearance on CBSs "Face the Nation," when he claimed that those who criticize him are "really criticizing science because I represent science." At the time, the remark drew ire, getting slammed by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who accused him of having a "delusion of grandeur that you cannot criticize him."

Elon Musk also criticized Fauci, posting on social media, "Anyone who says that questioning them is questioning science itself cannot be regarded as a scientist."

Asked Monday if he represents science, Fauci testified, "I am a scientist who uses the scientific method to gain information."

Dr. Anthony Fauci sits down to testify before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic at the Rayburn House Office Building on June 3, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In his opening statement, Fauci addressed the COVID-19 lab leak theory. stressing to the committee that he never sought to suppress that idea.

He testified that on Jan. 31, 2020, he "was informed through phone calls with Jeremy Farrar, then director of the Wellcome Trust in the UK, and then with Kristian Anderson, a highly regarded scientist at Scripps Research Institute, that they and Eddie Holmes, a world-class evolutionary biologist from Australia, were concerned that the genomic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 suggested that the virus could have been manipulated in a lab."

The next day, Fauci said, he participated in a conference call "with about a dozen international virologists to discuss this possibility versus a spillover from an animal reservoir." Fauci described the conference call discussion as "lively with arguments for both possibilities," and said two participants have testified before the House subcommittee that he "did not try to steer the discussion in any direction."

FAUCI ADVISER'S ALLEGED DESTRUCTION OF COVID ORIGIN DOCS MUST BE PROBED BY AG: RAND PAUL

"It was decided that several participants would more carefully examine the genomic sequence after this further examination. Several who at first were concerned about lab manipulation became convinced that the virus was not deliberately manipulated. They concluded that the most likely scenario was the spillover from an animal reservoir, although they still kept an open mind," Fauci said. "They appropriately published their opinion in the peer-reviewed literature."

"The accusation being circulated that I influenced these scientists to change their minds by bribing them with millions of dollars in grant money is absolutely false and simply preposterous. I had no input into the content of the published paper," Fauci said in his opening statement. "The second issue is a false accusation that I tried to cover up the possibility that the virus originated from a lab. In fact, the truth is exactly the opposite."

Dr. Anthony Fauci arrives to testify before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic at the Rayburn House Office Building on June 3, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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The Republican-led subcommittee has spent over a year probing the nations response to the pandemic and whether U.S.-funded research in China may have played any role in how it started. Democrats opened the hearing saying the investigation so far has found no evidence that Fauci did anything wrong, while missing an important opportunity to prepare for the next scary outbreak.

Fauci spent 14 hours over two days in January being grilled by the House panel behind closed doors. Monday's hearing was the first time Fauci was questioned in public and on camera since he ended more than five decades of government service.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Fauci denies seeking to suppress COVID-19 lab leak origin theory - Fox News