The New York Post:
Dr. Anthony Fauci rushed to China’s defense in two separate interviews — claiming the theory that COVID-19 leaked from a Wuhan laboratory is “far out” and that Americans should refrain from “pointing fingers” at the Chinese Communist Party, despite earlier claims he was keeping an “open mind” about the virus’ origin.
Fauci repeated his claim that he was keeping “an open mind” that the virus may have been man-made, before throwing cold water on the possibility later in the same CNN interview.
“The idea, I think, is quite far-fetched that the Chinese deliberately engineered something so that they could kill themselves, as well as other people. I think that’s a bit far out,” he said.
Questions about what Fauci knew and when regarding the lab leak theory have swirled this week since thousands of pages of his emails were posted online by BuzzFeed News, which obtained them through the Freedom of Information Act. They include how he was warned that COVID may have been engineered.
In one of the emails, the president of the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance wrote to Fauci in April 2020 to thank him for voicing support of the theory that the coronavirus began naturally rather than escaping from the Wuhan lab.
EcoHealth Alliance had funneled millions of dollars in federal grant money to the Wuhan lab.
The “far-fetched” remark came when Fauci was asked during his CNN appearance about an email exchange with Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, on April 16, 2020.
Collins wrote that the “conspiracy theory gains momentum,” referring to the Wuhan lab, but much of the rest of the email was redacted.
