1 hr 17 min ago
Fauci calls idea of deliberate coronavirus lab leak "quite far-fetched"
From CNN's Jacqueline Howard
CNN
The idea that the coronavirus was deliberately released from a lab is "quite far-fetched," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN's John Berman on New Day Thursday morning.
Among
thousands of Fauci's emails that have been published online, in one exchange between him and Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, Collins writes that the "conspiracy theory" of
a lab leak origin has gained momentum — but much of that email had been redacted.
Fauci told Berman that he does not remember what was in the body of that email from Collins, sent last April.
"They only took about 10,000 emails from me," Fauci said with a smile. "Give me a break."
Fauci added, however, that he still thinks the idea of a deliberate lab leak is "quite far-fetched."
"The idea I think is quite far-fetched that the Chinese deliberately engineered something so that they could kill themselves as well as other people," Fauci said. "I think that's a bit far out, John."