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Anthony S. Fauci, CCP Virus, China, coronavirus, COVID 19, gain-of-function research, George Fu Gao, Im-Politic, Kristian Andersen, lab leak, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, natural origin, wet markets, Wuhan Institute of Virology
Imagine if a close friend of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the recently retired U.S. medical official who spearheaded the nation’s fight against the CCP Virus pandemic, just made public comments undercutting a pandemic proposition pushed long and hard by Fauci – along with many American apologists for Beijing (Or were they simply Trump-ly deranged scolds determined to beat what they saw as the former’s xenophobic penchant for blaming foreign countries for…anything? Or both?)?
This belief, of course, is that this this devastating disease originated in a wild animal and not from a virology lab in China with a terrifyingly casual – but evidently typical Chinese attitude – toward preventing accidental pathogen release.
Imagine further that this friend of Fauci – whose initial response to the “lab leak theory” was to use his power in the American research community to slime as “conspiracy thinking” any suggestion that the Chinese regime’s recklessness loosed the virus on humanity – was an eminent virologist himself.
And finally, imagine that this Fauci friend had until last year been not only a leading medical authority, but essentially Fauci’s Chinese counterpart.
That would be a development you’d think would supercharge U.S. government and other international pressure on China to come clean on the virus’ origin, and thereby help identify crucial steps needed to reduce the odds of another possibly preventable medical disaster engulfing the globe.
And that’s exactly what happened Friday in London at an international conference. Dr. George Fu Gao, former head of Beijing’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told attendees that there was still “no evidence” showing which animal the virus supposedly came from.
Gao’s full statement: “Even now, people think some animals are the host or reservoir. Cut a long story short, there is no evidence which animals (were) where the virus comes (from).”
As known by those who have followed the virus origins debate closely, Gao’s remark is nothing unusual per se. Finding conclusive evidence along these lines is difficult because it typically requires finding the pathogen in specimens caught in the wild – which are carrying the disease before they’ve had any contact with possible human sources. In fact, despite searching for decades, scientists still haven’t identified the natural “reservoir host” of the ebola virus.
But Gao’s view matters a lot because just a month ago, a report was published that many “natural origins” proponents claimed all but clinched the case that the CCP Virus first jumped to humans from raccoon dogs that were sold at a “wet market” in the city of Wuhan. That is, no Chinese lab was involved.
Interestingly, one of the report’s lead authors was Dr. Kristian Anderson of the reknowned Scripps Research Institute, who in early 2020 worked closely with Fauci and other specialists to (in his words) “disprove any type of lab theory” (italics in original), and who had been the recipient of big grants from Fauci’s agency.
A close reading of the findings (good summaries can be found in the above-linked Atlantic and New York Times articles) makes clear that they don’t clinch the case at all. For example, although the Chinese-collected samples from the Wuhan market did contain mostly genetic material testing positive for the virus that matched the raccoon dog genome – the evidence that so excited the natural origins supporters. But infected human samples were found as well. Moreover, the Chinese researchers who collected the samples used at least some test kits designed to filter out human material (which sure sounds consistent with a lab leak cover-up campaign), though it’s not certain how effectively they did achieved this goal.
To be clear, Gao has not endorsed the lab leak theory. In fact, in principle, his remarks could dovetail with the Chinese regime’s claim that the virus came to the People’s Republic from abroad. (Beijing, ironically, doesn’t endorse the natural origins theory because it’s embarrassed by the minimal-at-best hygienic conditions at the wet markets.)
But Gao’s comments are important because he undoubtedly recognizes that, since no one outside China (except some apologists?) takes seriously the foreign-origin claims, any development that undercuts the natural origins theory ipso facto strengthens the only remaining alternative – the lab leak theory. And therefore it would strengthen the case not only for Chinese responsibility, but for Chinese government responsibility.
In turn, if Chinese government responsibility is so distinctly possible, it raises the question of why Fauci worked so hard to discredit it. And one answer is supported by abundant evidence: that very soon after the virus’ severity became clear, Fauci realized that his own agency had funded the kind of research (known as “gain of function”) dangerous enough to create novel and indeed unprecedently deadly pathogens at the Chinese government-operated lab in Wuhan that had already come under scrutiny as the virus’ possible origin point. (See, e.g., my post here.)
This doesn’t mean that Fauci’s American and Chinese grantees at the Wuhan Institute of Virology accidentally created the bug that became SARS-Cov-2 (the scientific name for the CCP Virus). That charge seems implausible. (At least, that’s what been stated by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and even though it’s the parent agency of Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and therefore was responsible for funding Wuhan research, too, I haven’t yet seen a convincing refutation.)
But at that early stage, neither Fauci nor anyone else could know that for sure. And clearly even once that allegation was disposed of, any solid reason to think that Fauci had funded dangerous work in China – especially given that country’s slipshod lab safety record – would have indicated judgement appalling enough to justify his firing.
Before long, Fauci will be appearing before Congressional committees investigating these and other controversial aspects of his record in the fight against the virus. Here’s hoping some lawmaker asks him if he thinks his friend George Gao is a lab leak conspiracy-monger, too.