In the wake of an explosive report that claims “Patient Zero” in the COVID-19 pandemic was a scientist working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), former Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield says he is “very disappointed” with the way Dr. Anthony Fauci handled the hunt for the origin of the virus.
“Tony and I have been friends for a long time, but I’m very disappointed in how he’s responded to this,” Redfield told Fox News’s “America Reports” anchor John Roberts on Wednesday. “Largely, I think it’s grounded in his advocacy for gain-of-function research.”
(Video: Fox News)
Redfield’s remarks follow a new Substack report from authors Matt Taibbi, Michael Schellenberger, and Alex Gutenag. Citing “strong new evidenced,” the journalists state, that “the virus known as SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a Chinese lab.”
“According to multiple sources,” Schellenberger tweeted, “the researchers who led gain-of-function research, which increases infectiousness, were the first to be infected.”
Huge story by @shellenberger (with humble contributions from Racket) reporting “Patient Zero” of Covid was a Wuhan Institute of Virology scientist, heading gain-of-function research: https://t.co/2HeyF5jEXl
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) June 13, 2023
“Sources within the US government say that three of the earliest people to become infected with SARS-CoV-2 were Ben Hu, Yu Ping, and Yan Zhu. All were members of the Wuhan lab suspected to have leaked the pandemic virus,” Schellenberger continued. “As such, not only do we know there were WIV scientists who had developed COVID-19-like illnesses in November 2019, but also that they were working with the closest relatives of SARS-CoV-2, and inserting gain-of-function features unique to it.”
After years of official pronouncements to the contrary, strong new evidence has emerged suggesting the virus known as SARS-CoV-2 escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
According to multiple U.S. government officials interviewed as part of a lengthy investigation by… pic.twitter.com/HGmNziGsNw
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) June 13, 2023
Redfield called the claims “very important.”
“As I said for some time, I think the answer to the origin of Covid is going to come from the intelligence community,” he told Roberts. “And I think hopefully next week there’s going to be more intelligence released. There has been, I think, strong evidence that there was infections that occurred in the laboratory both in September and November, and we are hearing more specifics from these reporters, which, I suspect, their information is grounded in truth.”
Redfield dismissed the “wet market” theory that quickly became the approved narrative from the mainstream media.
“I’ve always felt the wet market narrative was a ruse to try to move attention away from the laboratory,” he said.
In February, Fauci questioned in a Boston Globe interview whether the origins of the virus would ever be discovered.
“Might not — it very well might not — we may not even know, that’s unfortunate, but that’s the possibility that we might not ever know,” Fauci said at the time.
It all goes back to gain-of-function research, Redfield surmised.
“I think, as you know, [Fauci] is a strong advocate for gain-of-function research, and I’m a strong advocate for a moratorium on gain-of-function research,” he stated.
“The investigative report that you’re just talking about suggests that these three scientists were the initial infections in November — although I think there was evidence for infections back in early September also — but it’s of note that they were the key scientists that were leading the gain-of-function research in that laboratory,” Redfield said.
“One of the biggest disappointments” of the pandemic, he continued, was the failure to fully investigate the dueling “lab leak vs. wet market” origin-story hypotheses.
‘URGENT’: New Twitter Files twist on whether Biden admin. pressured platform to ban over COVID tweets https://t.co/fuMWCQPtrM via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) June 2, 2023
“Unfortunately, very rapidly what happened after Jan. 31… there was a movement to coalesce around a single narrative, which was that this was a natural spillover event, that’s the only hypothesis that really should be entertained,” he said. “People like me that thought it may be a lab leak were classified as ‘conspiratorial,’ and I tried to argue then that whole approach was antithetical to science.”
“What science normally does is foster rigorous debate, and we have a high degree of confidence science will eventually figure out the truth,” Redfield continued. “Now I’m of the view we are going to get to the answer, and I do agree with that article, getting to the answer is critical. In order to have the energy we are going to need as a society and a world, I think to put limitations on gain-of-function research, we need to understand that it’s most likely the gain-of-function research that led to this pandemic.”
Knowing for sure how the devastating pandemic started could play a major role in preventing the next major pandemic, he argued.
“I have said before that I do believe the great pandemic is coming. It’s going to be a bird flu pandemic and I believe it’s likely to come from gain-of-function research or bioterrorism,” Redfield warned. “And our best defense against that pandemic is going to be to curtail gain-of-function research.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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