During testimony last week, Anthony Fauci admitted that one of the reasons he repeatedly shot down any theories of the COVID-19 virus originating through a lab leak in Wuhan, China was because he did not want to risk escalating tensions between China and the United States.
The Washington Free Beacon reports that Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), made his comments during a 7-hour deposition as part of a lawsuit filed against the Biden Administration by the Attorneys General of Missouri and Louisiana. Fauci described his concern over “wild speculation and allegations” that China deliberately created the coronavirus, and then either intentionally or accidentally leaked it from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
Fauci also admitted that he was “afraid” that such rhetoric of “blaming the Chinese” would only “increase tensions and reduce cooperation” between the U.S. and China.
“There was no evidence of that at the time, and that’s what I was concerned about,” Fauci continued.
Despite Fauci and other government entities such as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), as well as the international World Health Organization (WHO), refusing to entertain the lab leak theory, the evidence overwhelmingly points to this being the most likely cause of the COVID-19 pandemic, as opposed to earlier theories such as the virus suddenly forming in a “wet market” in Wuhan.
Subsequently, Fauci and NIAID have come under greater scrutiny due to having previously provided funding for gain-of-function research to the WIV, which may have directly contributed to the creation of the virus.
The AGs’ lawsuit is focusing on allegations that the Biden Administration worked directly with several Big Tech companies to systematically target and censor any dissenting information on COVID, including discussion of the lab leak theory, skepticism of the COVID vaccines’ effectiveness, and attempts to raise awareness to the negative side effects of the vaccines. Fauci has denied ever coordinating with representatives of tech companies on censorship, although he admitted that his own daughter worked for Twitter as a software engineer until last year.