{"id":319936,"date":"2021-03-26T16:31:26","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T20:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=319936"},"modified":"2021-03-26T16:31:38","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T20:31:38","slug":"former-cdc-director-says-he-thinks-coronavirus-came-from-a-chinese-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-cdc-director-says-he-thinks-coronavirus-came-from-a-chinese-lab\/","title":{"rendered":"Former CDC Director Says He Thinks Coronavirus Came From A Chinese Lab"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-cdc-director-says-he-thinks-coronavirus-came-from-a-chinese-lab%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=319936&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-3803.jpeg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>Dr. Robert Redfield, the former director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN\u2019s chief medical correspondent in an interview that he believes the novel coronavirus pandemic originated from a lab in Wuhan, China.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Redfield, who served under former President Donald Trump for four years, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/videos\/health\/2021\/03\/26\/sanjay-gupta-exclusive-robert-redfield-coronavirus-opinion-origin-sot-intv-newday-vpx.cnn\/video\/playlists\/coronavirus\/\"><span>told<\/span><\/a><span> CNN correspondent Sanjay Gupta, \u201cthe most likely etiology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory.\u201d The virologist added: \u201cOther people don\u2019t believe that, that\u2019s fine, science will eventually figure it out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIf I was to guess, this virus started transmitting somewhere in September, October, in Wuhan,\u201d Redfield added, noting he believes the virus was likely spreading as early as the Fall of 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThat\u2019s my own view. It\u2019s only an opinion. I\u2019m allowed to have opinions now,\u201d said Redfield.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt\u2019s not unusual for respiratory pathogens that are being worked on in [a] laboratory to infect the laboratory worker,\u201d said Redfield.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Gupta told Redfield that his statements were significant, to which Redfield emphasized that he wasn\u2019t \u201cimplying any intentionality\u201d \u2014 meaning that he wasn\u2019t suggesting the coronavirus was leaked from a lab on purpose.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Redfield also said that while he was merely offering his opinion, he has spent his \u201clife in virology.\u201d He also told CNN that \u201cnormally\u201d when a pathogen jumps to humans, \u201cit takes a while for it to figure out how to become more and more efficient in human-to-human transmission. I just don\u2019t think this makes biological sense.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The former CDC director\u2019s opinion runs counter to that of most other experts, and CNN, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/world\/live-news\/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-03-26-21\/h_4018699a962ffd51b2d236cda55a72d8\"><span>reporting<\/span><\/a><span> on his remarks, called his opinion \u201ca controversial theory without evidence.\u201d Dr. Peter Ben Embarek, the lead WHO investigator looking into the COVID-19 outbreak\u2019s origins, has called the lab-leak hypothesis \u201cvery unlikely,\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-health-coronavirus-who-china-lab\/who-expert-in-wuhan-says-lab-leak-very-unlikely-as-covid-source-idUSKBN2A91FF\"><span>reports<\/span><\/a><span> Reuters.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Stephen Goldstein, an evolutionary virologist at the University of Utah, responded to Redfield\u2019s remarks by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stgoldst\/status\/1375445109160910853\"><span>saying<\/span><\/a><span> that \u201cone recent paper suggests there [were] adaptive changes during early transmission in humans.\u201d Another research paper, said Goldstein, suggests that the \u201cSARS-CoV-2 spike isn\u2019t even good at producing infection of human cells \u2014 related viruses are much better. This virus is not optimized for humans.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cFinally, from a \u2018biological standpoint\u2019 as he says, there\u2019s no reason to think serial passage in culture produces a virus more transmissible in humans,\u201d added Goldstein.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday afternoon that the Biden administration has not reached a determination as to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe WHO is examining this and will be releasing a report soon. We\u2019ll review that report once it\u2019s available,\u201d said Psaki. \u201cWe continue to learn more about the early status of the COVID-19 pandemic, including its origins, so we can better prepare for future crises.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Psaki also directed White House reporters to comments made on Friday morning by CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky \u2014 who said U.S. officials would review the WHO report when it\u2019s released \u2014 and White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cObviously there are a number of theories,\u201d Fauci told reporters during a COVID-19 response team briefing on Friday. \u201cThe issue that would have someone think it\u2019s possible to have 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cHowever, 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. If that were the case, 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,\u201d said Fauci.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Later in the press conference, Fauci remarked of Redfield\u2019s comments: \u201cI think what he likely was expressing is that there certainly are possibilities\u2026of how a virus adapts itself to 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 recognize[d] 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Walensky added after Fauci\u2019s remarks: \u201cI don\u2019t have any indication for or against either of the hypotheses that Dr. Fauci just outlined.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i><span>member.<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Robert Redfield, the former director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN\u2019s chief medical correspondent in an interview that he believes the novel coronavirus pandemic originated &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2311216,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-3803.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Former CDC Director Says He Thinks Coronavirus Came From A Chinese Lab","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-3803.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Former CDC Director Says He Thinks Coronavirus Came From A Chinese Lab","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2311216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}