Dr Anthony Fauci admitted that there is no way to know if Chinese scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology lied and conducted what are called ‘gain of function’ experiments on bat coronaviruses using U.S. tax dollars.
‘There’s no way of guaranteeing that,’ Fauci said Wednesday at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, responding to a question from Republican Senator John Kennedy.
‘But in our experience with grantees, including Chinese grantees, which we have had interactions with for a very long period of time – they are very competent, trustworthy scientists.’
‘Gain of function’ experiments are conducted to make viruses more contagious or deadly.
There continues to be speculation that COVID-19 could have escaped from a lab, with the White House releasing a statement Wednesday saying U.S. intelligence agencies couldn’t state for certain the origin of that coronavirus.
Biden on Wednesday defended his administration’s approach and said the intelligence agents were divided on the two possible scenarios: laboratory leak or natural transfer in the wild.