Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious disease, on Friday, rejected a conspiracy theory that the novel coronavirus escaped a Chinese lab.
“A group of highly-qualified evolutionary virologists looked at the sequences in bats as they evolve. The mutations that it took to get to the point where it is now is totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human,” Fauci said at the daily White House press briefing in response to a question from a reporter on the theory, which has been pushed by President Donald Trump’s allies in recent days.
The precise origins of the novel coronavirus, which is officially known as SARS-CoV-2 and causes the disease COVID-19, remain somewhat of a mystery. But, as Fauci underscored in his remarks on Friday, studies of the virus’ genome have strongly indicated that it was transmitted from an animal to a human.
Article URL: https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-throws-cold-water-conspiracy-theory-coronavirus-escaped-chinese-lab-2020-4