A former science editor of the New York Times on Wednesday Dr. Days after newly released emails teased Anthony Fauci for trying to discredit the so-called “lab leak theory” of the origin of Covid-19, the former White House chief medical adviser launched a paper. At the start of the pandemic it meant disproving it.
“Fauci probably wasn’t too happy to hear that the virus had escaped research funded by his agency,” Nicholas Wade, who also served as editor of the journals Nature and Science, told a House select sub on the coronavirus pandemic. Told the committee.
Wade was referring to experiments conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology with funding from the National Institutes of Health and Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which were sent to the Chinese institute by the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance.
The journalist and author pointed the finger of blame at Fauci and former NIH director Francis Collins, saying: “It is hard to believe that in the twilight of their long careers they would seriously tackle the important issue of the origin of the Covid virus, yet the evidence seem to point to it.”
“The national media swallowed the natural origin story with skepticism, and once committed to it, failed to report significant contrary evidence,” he added.
Dr. Christian Anderson said Fauci and Collins “inspired” him to write a study to debunk the lab leak theory, according to a Feb. 12, 2020, cover email submitted with an article on the topic in Nature Medicine. The article was published five days later and quoted by Fauci from the White House briefing room two months later—without disclosing his role in its creation.
In his testimony, Wade noted that Anderson sent Fauci an email on January 31, 2020, in which Anderson warned that the virus had “unusual properties” that “appear to be (potentially) engineered.” .”
Anderson also wrote that he and others “find whole genomes inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory.”
Within days, Wade said, Anderson had “rejected” his initial position.
“Within four days, Anderson dismissed the lab leak as a crackpot theory in an email on February 4,” he said. “What made him change his mind? No new scientific evidence has emerged.”
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