{"id":549930,"date":"2021-06-02T17:05:33","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T21:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=549930"},"modified":"2021-06-02T17:05:34","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T21:05:34","slug":"why-were-we-waved-off-martha-maccallum-presses-nih-director-on-lab-leak-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-were-we-waved-off-martha-maccallum-presses-nih-director-on-lab-leak-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Why Were We Waved Off?\u2019: Martha MacCallum Presses NIH Director On Lab Leak Theory"},"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\">28<\/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%2Fwhy-were-we-waved-off-martha-maccallum-presses-nih-director-on-lab-leak-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=549930&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\/06\/Screen-Shot-2021-06-02-at-2.47.25-PM-e1622665840172.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>Fox News host Martha MacCallum directly challenged National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Francis Collins over the COVID-19 origin during a Wednesday interview.<\/p>\n<p>MacCallum pointed out the fact that no intermediate animal host had yet been found for the virus and asked Collins why experts had pushed media away from the <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/05\/26\/aged-poorly-trump-critics-mocking-lab-leak-theory\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lab leak theory<\/a> as they searched for the origins of the pandemic. <strong><a class=\"text-black\" href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/05\/28\/dan-bongino-torches-talking-head-media-buffoons-lab-leak-story\/\">(RELATED: \u2018Wrap Up Shop And Go Home\u2019: Dan Bongino Torches \u2018Talking Head Media Buffoons\u2019 For Bungling Lab Leak Story)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>WATCH:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know, at this points, there\u2019s still no evidence that it came from a zoonotic source,\u201d MacCallum began. \u201cWere you aware that there were three scientists that were ill with COVID-like symptoms in November of 2019 at the Wuhan lab?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Collins claimed that he was aware some had fallen ill at the lab but did not know that the exact number was three.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you heard that, why didn\u2019t that cause you to say, you know, we really need to find out exactly what these people had in November of 2019 and why they visited the hospital?\u201d MacCallum pressed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe knew back last year that there had been some possibility of laboratory workers who had fallen ill. Most likely with the flu or some other benign illness,\u201d Collins replied, saying that he had believed an investigation was warranted from the beginning. \u201cLet\u2019s just be clear here, Martha. I don\u2019t think we know what happened in Wuhan. It is possible there was a lab leak, again, that\u2019s an extraordinary claim. What we need then is to have an evidence-based expert-driven open investigation \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/05\/10\/martha-maccallum-teachers-union-president-1619-project\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MacCallum<\/a> pushed back, arguing that experts had essentially \u201cshot down\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/05\/26\/dagen-mcdowell-media-blew-off-lab-leak-theory-republicans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lab leak theory<\/a> \u2014 which was backed by former President Donald Trump and Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton \u2014 as \u201cnot being scientific and something that should be rejected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you disagree with that?\u201d MacCallum asked.<\/p>\n<p>Collins disagreed, claiming that they were reacting to the \u201coutrageous\u201d suggestion that it had been an intentionally engineered bioweapon rather than the idea that it had accidentally leaked from a research lab.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe also don\u2019t know 100% that some version of that is not the case. There are a couple of different programs that were funded by the NIH that raise these questions,\u201d MacCallum continued, pointing to gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy was that work being done and why was it being done in conjunction with NIH-funded scientists?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re The National Institutes of Health,\u201d Collins replied. \u201cWe know that bat-driven coronaviruses had caused already two major scares as far as pandemics, SARS and MERS. It would have been irresponsible for us to not understand what else might be lurking out there \u2026 I\u2019m a little disturbed, we\u2019re spending this time on this issue. Here we are today. We should be talking about how to put COVID-19 behind us, not going back to January 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDoesn\u2019t it matter where this came from? Doctor. Doctor, we have been told up and down that anybody that thinks that this was not a zoonotic virus is part of a conspiracy theory,\u201d MacCallum continued to press Collins, noting that the Chinese had reportedly tested some 80,000 species and still did not find one animal that had carried COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy is there so much basis given to that part of the story and not the lab leak part of the story?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAgain, I think the most likely explanation is still a natural transmission,\u201d Collins insisted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy do you think that?\u201d from MacCallum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s be fair here. Because that\u2019s always been the case with other coronaviruses,\u201d Collins said. \u201cWith SARS it turned out to be a civet cat. With MRSA it was a camel. With ebola, we still don\u2019t know what the intermediate host is. It\u2019s not easy. Just on a historical basis, that is the most likely path that was traveled. Again, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. To claim the lab was responsible, we need to know that. I don\u2019t think anybody, you or anybody of the others who are commenting should jump to the conclusion that that is the most likely explanation right now. We do not know that. It might be, but we don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not jumping to any conclusions,\u201d MacCallum pushed back, again saying that media had been steered away from the lab leak theory from the beginning. \u201cWhy were we waved off of that so early on when we\u2019re now being told that we don\u2019t know and we should do a thorough investigation of exactly that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMartha, I deny that you were waved off of that by me,\u201d Collins said. \u201cI would say you were waved off of some more outrageous conspiracy theories that had really no categorical sense to them. The idea of a lab leak is never anything that I thought was impossible. I want to say that right clearly now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fox News host Martha MacCallum directly challenged National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Francis Collins over the COVID-19 origin during a Wednesday interview.MacCallum pointed out the fact that no &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2278966,"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\/06\/Screen-Shot-2021-06-02-at-2.47.25-PM-e1622665840172.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"\u2018Why Were We Waved Off?\u2019: Martha MacCallum Presses NIH Director On Lab Leak Theory","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Screen-Shot-2021-06-02-at-2.47.25-PM-e1622665840172.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"\u2018Why Were We Waved Off?\u2019: Martha MacCallum Presses NIH Director On Lab Leak Theory","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549930","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=549930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2278966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}