Fauci gives Republicans ammo for lab leak “conspiracy” theory

Dr. Anthony Fauci provided ammo to Republicans this week as he reportedly acknowledged that claims that the COVID-19 virus stemmed from a lab leak in Wuhan, China, was not a “conspiracy” theory.

Fauci’s testimony this week comes amid ongoing speculation among Republicans that COVID-19 originated from a lab leak in Wuhan, China. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) previously determined with a “low confidence” rating that the virus likely originated from a lab leak, the Wall Street Journal previously reported.

Over the past week, Fauci, the former chief medical adviser to the White House, appeared before the Republican-led House House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic to testify about the origins of COVID-19 and how different health agencies across the nation responded to the pandemic.

“He testified that the lab leak hypothesis—which was often suppressed—was, in fact, not a conspiracy theory,” Committee Chairman Representative Brad Wenstrup said in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement also included key takeaways from Fauci’s closed-door testimony which said, “Dr. Fauci acknowledged that the lab leak hypothesis is not a conspiracy theory. This comes nearly four years after prompting the publication of the now infamous ‘Proximal Origin’ paper that attempted to vilify and disprove the lab leak hypothesis.”

During last night’s town hall in Iowa, hosted by Fox News, former President Donald Trump also commented on the lab-leak theory saying that he believes the virus stemmed from a lab in Wuhan.

“I think it was done out of incompetence,” Trump said.

Shortly after the report from the Wall Street Journal last year, Fauci, who also previously served as the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), spoke about the lab-leak theory.

“You have to look at the data. I don’t see any data for a lab leak…That doesn’t mean it could not have happened, and that’s the reason I keep an open mind always about that,” Fauci said during an interview with the Boston Globe in February 2023.

In 2022, Fauci spoke again about the theory during an interview with NBC‘s Meet the Press saying, “I have a completely open mind about that, despite people saying that I don’t.”

In the statement following his second day of testimony this week, the COVID-19 Select Subcommittee also said that Fauci “claimed that the ‘6 feet apart’ social distancing recommendation promoted by federal health officials was likely not based on any data.”

“Dr. Fauci admitted that America’s vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic could increase vaccine hesitancy in the future. Previously, Dr. Fauci advocated ‘that when you make it difficult for people in their lives, they lose their ideological bullshit, and they get vaccinated,'” the statement added.