Dr. Fauci Dismisses Redfield Comments About Covid Escaping From Wuhan Lab: ‘Just His Opinion,’ Most Experts Disagree

Dr. Anthony Fauci diplomatically but firmly dismissed Trump-era CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield’s contention that the coronavirus likely “escaped” from a lab in Wuhan, China.

Redfield made the claim in an interview with CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, with the caveat that it was his opinion “and I’m allowed to have opinions now.”

At Friday’s White House COVID-19 briefing, Maureen Groppe of USA Today asked Fauci about Redfield’s comments, on behalf of a colleague.

“So, when you think about the possibilities of how this virus appeared in the human population, obviously there are a number of theories,” Fauci said. “The issue that would have someone think it’s possible to have a escaped from a lab would mean that it essentially entered the outside human population already well-adapted to humans, suggesting that it was adapted in the lab.”

Dr. Redfield also told Dr. Gupta that he believed the virus was spreading for months before it was recognized or reported in December of 2019 — which Dr. Fauci says would make the lab explanation less likely, not more.

“However, the alternative explanation, which most public health individuals go by, is that this virus was actually circulating in China, likely in Wuhan, for a month or more before they were clinically recognized at the end of December of 2019,” Fauci said, adding that in that circumstance, “the virus clearly could have adapted itself to a greater efficiency of transmissibility over that period of time, up to and at the time it was recognized.”

“So Dr. Redfield was mentioning that he was giving an opinion as to a possibility, but again there are other alternatives, others that most people hold by,” Fauci said, significantly downplaying the degree to which Redfield promoted his theory.

Later in the briefing, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked “Are you surprised by his comments, and is there any evidence within CDC that this is a possibility? What is he basing this on do you believe?”

Dr. Fauci again tried to be diplomatic, telling Collins that “from what I gather from the press of what he said, he said that this is a possibility, and he’s entitled to his opinion now,” and saying that “I think what he likely was expressing is that there certainly are possibilities, as I mentioned just a few moments ago, of how a virus adapts itself to an efficient spread among humans.”

“You know, one of them is in a lab, and one of them, which is the more likely, which most public health officials agree with, is that it likely was below the radar screen spreading in the community in China for several weeks, if not a month or more, which allowed it when it first got recognized clinically to be pretty well adapted.”

“But according to the words of Dr. Redfield, he was saying he was just expressing an opinion and an option of what it could be,” Fauci said.

Redfield did say repeatedly that this was his opinion, but also made clear this was a strongly-held view based on his expertise as a virologist.

Watch above via The White House.