A CIA whistleblower told Congress that Anthony Fauci, once America's top health official, steered official investigators away from concluding that Covid-19 originated in a Chinese laboratory.
Fauci, who retired in 2022, "significantly influenced" the CIA's "neutral" findings on the origins of the coronavirus by suggesting that the agency consult with experts who agreed with his view that the virus arose spontaneously, James Erdman told the Senate Committee on National Security and Governmental Affairs.
“Dr. Fauci’s role in hiding the truth was intentional,” Erdman testified under oath on Wednesday. He claimed that CIA investigators were leaning toward the lab leak theory until Fauci intervened.
"Dr Fauci influenced the analytical process and findings by using his position to ensure that the intelligence community was consulted by a select list of experts, public health officials, and scientists who had conflicts of interest," he said.
Fauci, the 85-year-old former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was not present at the hearing, which was boycotted by every Democratic member.
Republicans have alleged that he dismissed the theory that the coronavirus was created and leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology due to a conflict of interest. Fauci has strongly denied this.
Rand Paul, the Republican senator who chaired the hearing, has consistently accused Fauci of covering up for the Wuhan Institute because the agency he previously led funded another organization, EcoHealth Alliance, which in turn funded research in Wuhan on bat coronaviruses.
Paul said this constituted “gain-of-function” research, which involves intentionally modifying a virus to make it more infectious in humans for the purpose of studying its effects in the laboratory. Fauci stated that “NIH has never funded and does not currently fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
Paul has long alleged that there was a cover-up, while Fauci has repeatedly insisted that he was being transparent about what he considered to be the best scientific conclusion, as were other scientists consulted by investigators.
The CIA initially reached a "neutral" conclusion on the origins of Covid-19, but after a review changed its position in January last year, five days after President Trump took office.
An agency spokesperson said in a statement on January 25:
“The CIA assesses with low confidence that a laboratory-related origin of the Covid-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin, based on available information. The CIA continues to assess that both the laboratory-related and natural origin scenarios remain plausible.”
The change came after Trump appointed John Ratcliffe, who had served as director of national intelligence during Trump's first term, to the post of CIA director.
"I have been publicly of the opinion that our intelligence, our science and common sense indicate that the origin of Covid was a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology," Ratcliffe told Breitbart News after being confirmed by the Senate.
According to Fauci, the coronavirus originated in bats and most likely jumped to humans through another species, while the food market in Wuhan, where various animal species were sold, has been suggested as the most likely source.
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