Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) head Robert Redfield said the World Health Organization (WHO) is “highly compromised” and unable to lead a COVID-19 origin investigation into China.
“Clearly, they were incapable of compelling China to adhere to the treaty agreements that they have on global health, because they didn’t do that,” Redfield said in a Fox News interview aired Tuesday. “Clearly, they allowed China to define the group of scientists that could come and investigate. That’s not consistent with their role.”
Redfield was an earlier supporter of the lab-leak theory than many other government officials and public health experts. In March, he told CNN that he does not believe the natural origin theory that COVID-19 jumped from a bat to a human.
The WHO investigated the possible origin of the COVID-19 pandemic in China earlier this year, but the probe was hamstrung in part by Chinese Communist Party influence. Investigators have admitted that they were kept from accessing certain information from Chinese officials, and that on some questions they simply had to place blind faith in China to be telling the truth.
“I think they were highly compromised,” Redfield told Fox News. (RELATED: Ex-CDC Director Says He Received Death Threats From Fellow Scientists For Supporting COVID-19 Lab-Leak Theory)
The lab-leak theory has gained credibility in recent weeks with the mainstream press and government officials, both of which largely dismissed it as a “conspiracy theory” when it first emerged last year. The WHO has come under more scrutiny during that time for its inability to properly investigate China, including by members of the Biden administration.