CNN host Erin Burnett on Monday asked Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., why he thinks the coronavirus lab leak claim was initially denied.
Lewis appeared on “Erin Burnett OutFront” to discuss the recent House Select Subcommittee on COVID-19 hearing, where Republicans grilled Dr. Anthony Fauci. (Related: ‘Put Fauci in Jail’: Grandma Makes Headlines With Epic Trolling)
“But on that lab leak story, I remember Senator Tom Cotton first published an op-ed on that subject, and it was very quickly squashed. Do you think at this point you know why that was,” Burnett asked. “Do you really think it was because they had other things to focus on at the time and felt it wasn’t worth talking about at the time? Or are you still left wondering why it was really pushed aside and treated as a ‘you’re really there’ story at the time?”
“Well, I think the notion of a lab leak ties into the whole Dr. Fauci story that I mentioned earlier. [and] “Dr Collins created the coronavirus pandemic and then it was leaked,” Lewis said.
“Now, this is[n] “If the whole accusation of extortion were to reveal an actual lab leak, then based on the evidence that we have, we could say that it certainly could be a lab leak and it could be of zoonotic origin,” Lewis responded, “but that was not the whole story that the manufacturers were trying to tell.”[ing] It’s creating distrust and putting at risk the many public health benefits we’ve received.”
During a House Select Subcommittee hearing, Fauci denied that research funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) was the origin of the SARS-CoV2 virus, but acknowledged that “there is a difference between the virus that was funded by the NIH grant and other work that somebody is doing in China.”
In early January, Dr. David Morens, Fauci’s right-hand man at the NIAID, said he had never considered the possibility that COVID-19 came from a laboratory, despite not investigating “any scientific evidence supporting a laboratory leak or the possibility of a man-made virus.”
Since the pandemic began, Fauci had publicly denied the possibility that the coronavirus originated from a Wuhan lab leak, but by 2021, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Fauci had briefed world leaders on the possibility that the idea was true.
