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Republicans pointed to research grants from the National Institutes of Health to EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S. nonprofit that had worked with international scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology before the outbreak of the pandemic, and accused Fauci of deliberately suppressing the lab leak theory. which he denied.
“Any qualified evolutionary virologist would confirm that the bat viruses studied at WIV under the NIH-funded grant were phylogenetically so distant from SARS-CoV-2 that it would be molecularly impossible to convert those viruses into SARS-CoV change. 2,” Fauci replied opening speech posted online on Sunday. “Any suggestion that the viruses studied under the NIH-funded WIV subaward resulted in the creation of SARS-CoV-2 is without the slightest evidence or feasibility.”
“Was it a laboratory leak or a natural overflow from an animal reservoir? I have repeatedly stated that I am completely open to either possibility and that if definitive evidence becomes available to validate or refute either theory, I will readily accept,” he continued. “As of now, however, it is important to point out that the information currently available, which has been carefully researched and published in reputable peer-reviewed journals by highly respected virologists, strongly suggests that the virus originated from an animal reservoir in the Hunan. seafood market in Wuhan, which led to the COVID-19 pandemic.”