Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, on Saturday reiterated his belief that the natural origins theory of the novel coronavirus is still the most likely.
His comments come as CNN has reported that senior Biden administration officials overseeing an intelligence review into the origins of the coronavirus now believe the theory that the virus accidentally escaped from a lab in Wuhan is at least as credible as the possibility that it emerged naturally in the wild — a dramatic shift from a year ago, when Democrats publicly downplayed the so-called lab leak theory. «The most likely explanation is a natural evolution from an animal reservoir to a human,» Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN’s Jim Acosta. «Once you say that, which I believe is the more likely, you’ve got to make sure you emphasize that you still keep an open mind for all possibilities, including a lab leak,» he added. Acosta pressed Fauci to confirm he believes the natural origins theory is still the more likely scenario.
