Dr. Fauci’s Email About Lab Leak Is Being Wrongly Interpreted

Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN on Thursday that an email he received last year from an official of the US-based EcoHealth Alliance had been misread and expressed sorrow for a February 2020 email downplaying the necessity to wear a mask.

Dr. Fauci’s Email About Lab Leak Is Being Wrongly Interpreted

Earlier this week, CNN, BuzzFeed News, and The Washington Post obtained hundreds of emails written and received by Fauci since he became the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases early last year.

An official at EcoHealth Alliance, the global NGO that helped fund some studies at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, commended Fauci in an email in April for publicly asserting that scientific data indicates a natural genesis for the coronavirus rather than a lab release. The virus’s origins remain unknown.

Some opponents argue that this demonstrates his too close ties with the individuals behind the Wuhan lab study, as CNN’s John Berman told Fauci on New Day.

Fauci said that this was absurd. He has no idea how they got that from that email.

Fauci then stressed that the email was addressed to him, and he stated that the coronavirus’s origins are still unknown.

He has always stated and will continue to repeat that the most likely origin is from an animal species to a human, but he keeps an open mind that there might be other sources, another rationale, it might have been a lab leak, Fauci said to Berman. So he believes that if he looks historically at what happens at the animal-human interface, the more likely it is that he is dealing with a species leap. But he always keeps an open mind. And it’s for this reason that he’s made it clear that they should keep looking for the source.

They may interpret it as they want, but the email was from a person to him saying “thank you” for whatever he thought he said, and he stated that he believes the most likely genesis is a species leap. He still believes it is, but he is maintaining an open mind that it may be a lab leak.

On April 16, NIH director Francis Collins said in an email to Fauci, “Conspiracy theory gathers momentum,” a reference to the lab-leak scenario. However, most of the email has been censored, and Fauci stated that he does not recall the communication’s content.

Of course, he remembers that they only collected around 10,000 emails from him. He can recall all 10,000 of them. He asked to give him a break. He doesn’t remember what was censored, but the thought that the Chinese purposely created something to kill themselves as well as others seem far-fetched to him. He thinks that’s a little far-fetched.

Berman also brought up an email Fauci sent to Sylvia Burwell, former secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, on February 5, 2020, in which he advised her not to wear a mask since she was heading to a low-risk zone. The email was issued before the coronavirus was designated a pandemic and before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encouraged the public to use masks for safety.

Since then, a lot has happened. Would he tell her something different if he had to do it all over again? Does he feel bad about it? Berman enquired of Fauci.

To be honest, if he examines scientific evidence as it accumulates, what happens in January and February, what he knows as a fact, as data, affects what he tells people and his policies. In March, April, and May occur, he will have a lot more knowledge and will be able to revise and amend his view and advice based on current research and statistics, Fauci told Berman.