{"id":320859,"date":"2021-03-26T18:45:25","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T22:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=320859"},"modified":"2021-03-26T18:45:32","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T22:45:32","slug":"tom-cotton-responds-to-ex-cdc-chiefs-belief-that-pandemic-started-in-lab-this-was-never-a-conspiracy-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tom-cotton-responds-to-ex-cdc-chiefs-belief-that-pandemic-started-in-lab-this-was-never-a-conspiracy-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Cotton Responds To Ex-CDC Chief\u2019s Belief That Pandemic Started In Lab: \u2018This Was Never A Conspiracy Theory\u2019"},"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\">36<\/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%2Ftom-cotton-responds-to-ex-cdc-chiefs-belief-that-pandemic-started-in-lab-this-was-never-a-conspiracy-theory%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=320859&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-3857.jpeg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) responded to remarks made by former CDC Director Robert Redfield on Friday during a CNN interview during which Redfield said that he believes the COVID-19 pandemic \u201cescaped\u201d from a lab inside China.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I was to guess, this virus started transmitting somewhere in September, October, in Wuhan,\u201d Redfield told CNN\u2019s Sanjay Gupta. \u201cThat\u2019s my own view. It\u2019s only an opinion. I\u2019m allowed to have opinions now. You know, I\u2019m of the point of view that I still think the most likely ideology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory, you know, escaped. Other people don\u2019t believe that. That\u2019s fine. Science will eventually figure it out. It\u2019s not unusual for respiratory pathogens that are being worked on in a laboratory to infect a laboratory worker.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am a virologist. I have spent my life in virology,\u201d Redfield continued. \u201cI do not believe this somehow came from a bat to a human and at that moment in time, the virus came to the human, became one of the most infectious viruses that we know in humanity for human-to-human transmission. Normally, when a pathogen goes from a zoonotic (ph) to human, it takes awhile 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<\/p>\n<p>Cotton responded on Twitter by demanding that the Chinese Communist Party be held accountable for what happened, writing: \u201cThis was never a conspiracy theory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe may never have direct, conclusive evidence because of the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s coverup,\u201d Cotton added. \u201cBut all of the circumstantial evidence points to the Wuhan labs.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id>\n<p><em>JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Dr. Robert Redfield, the former CDC director, is speaking out for the first time, saying publicly where he believes the coronavirus that caused the pandemic came from. These extraordinary comments come in a new interview for a CNN documentary airing this weekend.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And, Sanjay, Dr. Redfield says he\u2019s giving his opinion, but I have to say, I think you\u2019re about to break some pretty significant news here. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean, this was extraordinary, John, for certain. He is the former CDC director. He spent his entire career as a virologist. I interviewed all six of these doctors sort of in the form of an autopsy, really to sort of meticulously dissect exactly what happened here, really no pre-agenda.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Dr. Redfield, when we sat down to talk, he wanted to start at the beginning, the origins of this virus. What he believed actually transpired.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Take a listen.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>[BEGIN VIDEOTAPE]<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>ROBERT REDFIELD, FORMER CDC DIRECTOR: If I was to guess, this virus started transmitting somewhere in September, October, in Wuhan.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: September, October?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>REDFIELD: That\u2019s my own view. It\u2019s only an opinion. I\u2019m allowed to have opinions now. You know, I am of the point of view that I still think the most likely ideology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory \u2014 you know, escaped. Other people don\u2019t believe that. That\u2019s fine. Science will eventually figure it out. It\u2019s not unusual for respiratory pathogens that are being worked on in a laboratory to infect a laboratory worker.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>NARRATOR: It\u2019s also not unusual for that type of research to be occurring in Wuhan. The city is a widely-known center for viral studies in China, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has experimented extensively with bat coronaviruses.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>GUPTA: It is a remarkable conversation I feel like we\u2019re having here because you are the former CDC director, and you were the director at the time this was all happening.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>NARRATOR: For the first time, the former CDC director is stating publicly that he believes this pandemic started months earlier than we knew. And that it originated, not at a wet market, but inside a lab in China.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>GUPTA: These are two significant things to say, Dr. Redfield.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>REDFIELD: That\u2019s not implying any intentionality, you know? It\u2019s my opinion, right? But I am a virologist. I have spent my life in virology. I do not believe this somehow came from a bat to a human and at that moment in time, the virus came to the human, became one of the most infectious viruses that we know in humanity for human-to-human transmission. Normally, when a pathogen goes from a zoonotic (ph) to human, it takes awhile 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.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>GUPTA: So in the lab, do you think that that process of becoming more efficient was happening? Is that what you are suggesting?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>REDFIELD: Yeah, let\u2019s just say, I have coronavirus [that I\u2019m working on]. Most of us in the lab [are trying to grow a virus], we try to help make it grow better and better and better and better and better and better so we can do experiments and figure about it. That\u2019s the way I put it together.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>(END VIDEOTAPE)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>GUPTA (on camera): It\u2019s a pretty extraordinary conversation. And a little glimpse of what we revealed sort of within these couple of hours. I should point out, the World Health Organization calls the lab leak theory unlikely. And Chinese officials have started increasingly pointing to a multiple origin theory, saying that this pandemic may have started in multiple places, even around the world, including U.S. military labs. That\u2019s unsubstantiated, but that\u2019s sort of the back and forth that\u2019s happening right now.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>We still don\u2019t know, a year later, exactly how this pandemic started.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>BERMAN: Sanjay, he\u2019s the former CDC director. So when he says it\u2019s just his opinion, it\u2019s not just an opinion.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>GUPTA: Right.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>BERMAN: The former CDC director sees things and knows things the rest of us don\u2019t see \u2014<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>CAMEROTA: A life-long expertise.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>BERMAN: But only his life\u2019s long expertise, but actually when he was in the U.S. government, seeing things that the rest of us aren\u2019t entitled to. I mean, how much of just an opinion can it be?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>GUPTA: That\u2019s exactly right. I mean, he\u2019s talking to people on the ground, not just as counterparts of the China CDC, but we have investigators on the ground in various countries around the world, including China. If you look even at our preparedness and response sort of strategies in the United States, it\u2019s medical and public health. But it\u2019s also intelligence gathering.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>So when we\u2019re sitting down and talking to all these people, we\u2019re getting a sort of overall picture, I think, for the first time of what they knew, what they knew at what time, and how they were sort of piecing that together. So, it\u2019s really \u2014 and it\u2019s not just intrigue. It\u2019s important to know how this started if you are going to best prepare for a possible future pandemic. To go and \u2014 sort from an animal to a human and suddenly become one of the most infectious pathogens we\u2019ve ever seen in humanity simply doesn\u2019t happen very often.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>That\u2019s the point that Dr. Redfield was trying to make.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\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><i><span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) responded to remarks made by former CDC Director Robert Redfield on Friday during a CNN interview during which Redfield said that he believes the COVID-19 pandemic &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2311230,"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-3857.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Tom Cotton Responds To Ex-CDC Chief\u2019s Belief That Pandemic Started In Lab: \u2018This Was Never A Conspiracy Theory\u2019","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-320859","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-3857.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Tom Cotton Responds To Ex-CDC Chief\u2019s Belief That Pandemic Started In Lab: \u2018This Was Never A Conspiracy Theory\u2019","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320859","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=320859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2311230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}