Fauci’s ex-boss now says COVID-19 lab leak theory was credible, despite 2021 claims it was a distraction

Former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Francis Collins admitted to members of Congress final week that the coronavirus lab leak theory was in reality credible, despite his claims in 2021, wherein he known as it a “distraction.”

Collins made the admission throughout a closed-door, 7-hour interview on Friday with the House Select Committee on Coronavirus Pandemic, echoing testimony from Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was the general public face of the U.S. coronavirus pandemic response.

The subcommittee’s chairman, Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, launched the important thing takeaways from the interview with Collins, saying he served as Fauci’s “boss.”

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National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins testify earlier than a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee wanting into the finances estimates for National Institute of Health (NIH) and the state of medical analysis on Capitol Hill, May 26, 2021, in Washington, DC.  (Sarah Silbiger-Pool/Getty Images)

Fauci met with the subcommittee earlier within the week, testifying that the lab leak speculation – which was typically suppressed – was not a conspiracy theory and that the insurance policies and mandates he promoted could improve vaccine hesitancy sooner or later, Wenstrup wrote final Wednesday.

“Dr. Collins agreed with Dr. Fauci’s concession that the COVID-19 lab leak hypothesis is not a conspiracy,” Wenstrup wrote after interviewing Collins on Friday.

The congressman additionally stated Collins “minced words” when it got here to defining gain-of-function analysis in an effort to cover NIH’s involvement in funding the analysis in Wuhan.

“This wordplay mimics Dr. Fauci’s profuse defense of his previous Congressional testimony, where he claimed the NIH did not fund gain-of-function research in Wuhan,” Wenstrup wrote.

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Francis Collins, Director, National Institutes of Health, speaks on the Milken Institute twenty first Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., April 30, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake (REUTERS/Mike Blake)

Collins reportedly informed the subcommittee that Fauci invited him to attend a convention name on Feb. 1, 2020, which prompted the “Proximal Origin” publication, which tried to vilify and disprove the lab leak speculation.

“This testimony directly contradicts Dr. Fauci’s previous statements and raises further concerns about the U.S. government’s role in suppressing and vilifying the lab-leak hypothesis,” Wenstrup stated. 

In addition to going again on earlier statements concerning the lab leak speculation, Collins agreed with Fauci that social distancing six toes aside was probably not primarily based on scientific information.

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WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 01: Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President, gives an update on the Omicron COVID-19 variant during the daily press briefing at the White House on December 01, 2021, in Washington, DC. The first case of the omicron variant in the United States has been confirmed today in California. ( (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images))

Collins also reaffirmed previous statements attacking the Great Barrington Declaration, which encouraged the protection of the vulnerable and limited restriction of young and healthy Americans.

Collins made headlines in December 2021 after the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis released an email where he expressed deep concerns about the herd immunity strategy being advocated by “fringe epidemiologists,” and called for “a quick and devastating published takedown” of the three experts promoting the herd immunity strategy known as “The Great Barrington Declaration.”

He told Fox News’ Bret Baier on the time that he was not going to apologize for his phrases and argued that lots of of hundreds of individuals would have died had the U.S. adopted the technique.

“I did write that, and I will stand by that,” Collins stated on the time. “Basically, these fringe epidemiologists who really did not have the credentials to be making such a grand sweeping statement, were saying just let the virus run through the population and, eventually, then everybody would have had it, and everything will be okay.”

The interview with Collins got here after the House subcommittee met with Fauci on Jan. 8 and Jan. 9 throughout a 14-hour interview, to debate his influential function throughout the pandemic.

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Wenstrup’s committee has been investigating whether or not authorities officers on the time, together with Fauci, labored to suppress questions on whether or not the pandemic was the results of a lab leak in Wuhan, China. 

Republicans have accused these officers of pushing the pure origin theory in a bid to guard China.

Michael Dorgan of Fox News contributed to this report.