Trump CDC director says Covid ‘escaped’ from Wuhan lab, contradicting Fauci

The former head of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says Covid-19 "most likely" came from a laboratory in Wuhan where Chinese scientists were conducting research on coronaviruses.

Robert Redfield, the CDC director in the Trump administration, said in a new interview with CNN on Friday that Covid-19 likely began spreading in September or October of 2019 after likely infecting a lab worker accidentally.

“I am of the point of view that I still think the most likely ideology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory. Escaped. Other people don’t believe that. That’s fine. Science will eventually figure it out,” he said.

Dr Anthony Fauci addressed the comments during the White House’s Covid-19 response news briefing on Friday, saying there were more likely explanations of the virus origin than having come from a laboratory.

“I think what he likely was expressing is that there certainly are possibilities … of how a virus adapts itself to an efficient spread among humans,” Mr Fauci said.

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“One of them is in the 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 got recognized clinically to be pretty well-adapted.”