Former US CDC director believes coronavirus originated in Chinese lab

Robert redfield, former director of Centers for Disaster Control and Prevention (CDC, for its acronym in English), assured that it believes that SARS-Cov-2 virus, which causes COVID-19 disease, originated in laboratory in Wuhan city, China.

Redfield’s comments, which support a controversial theory on the origin of the coronavirus which is not proven, were made during an interview with the television channel CNN.

“If I had to guess, this virus started to spread in September, October somewhere in Wuhan”

“If I had to guess, this virus started to spread in September, October somewhere in Wuhan”said Redfield.

“These are my own feelings. It’s just an opinion. Now I can have opinions. I’m in a point of view where I still believe the most likely etiology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a lab it escaped. Other people don’t believe it. It’s good. Science will eventually understand. It is not uncommon for respiratory pathogens that you work with in a lab to infect the lab worker.Added the American virologist.

In a firm but diplomatic tone, the doctor Anthony Fauci, top White House adviser, rejected Redfield’s request during a White House press conference: “The problem with the theory that COVID appeared in the laboratory is that it entered the human population externally, although well adapted to humans, suggesting that it has been adapted in the laboratory ”.

“However, the alternative explanation, with which most public health experts agree, is that this virus circulated in China, possibly Wuhan, for a month or more before being clinically recognized at the end of December 2019 “Fauci said, adding that under these circumstances, “the virus could clearly have adapted to higher transmissibility efficiency during this period.”

Further, with some decorum, Fauci explained that “in the words of Dr Redfield, I was expressing only one opinion and one of the alternatives of what could have happened.”

With all, Redfield has said repeatedly that this is only his opinion, but he also clarified that it is a deeply held opinion based on his experience as a virologist.

Redfield’s full interview will air Sunday on CNN as part of the documentary. “COVID WAR: pandemic doctors speak out”.

There is no clear evidence to support the theory of virus creation in a laboratory, although it was frequently mentioned in connection with conspiracy theories. Former US President Donald Trump has also spoken on this subject on several occasions. For its part, the World Health Organization (WHO) considers this explanation of the origin of SARS-CoV-2 to be “extremely improbable”.

“It’s not uncommon for respiratory pathogens you work with in a lab to infect the worker.”

The WHO is running various theories on how the disease has reached humans and is expected to publish a report your findings. The work of its experts who were in Wuhan last February is intended to be a first stage of the investigation into the emergence of the virus, which would have originated in bats before being transmitted to humans through another species of wild animal, such as a pangolin or bamboo rat.

The WHO Animal Disease and Food Safety Expert, Peter Ben Embarek, said the first results of the team “They suggest that introduction by an intermediate host species is the most likely route and that it will require more specific studies and investigations.”.

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