Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, refused to rule out conducting risky research in the future with labs such as the Wuhan Institute of Virology on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.
“We have always been very careful. And, looking forward, we will continue to be very careful in what we do,” Fauci said, when asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper what collaboration on risky research would look like going forward, especially given China’s resistance to an investigation on the origins of COVID-19, the outlet reported.
.@jaketapper: Going forward, given China won’t allow a real investigation, do you still think USG should collaborate with Wuhan labs, especially on risky research?
Fauci: “We have always been very careful. And, looking forward, we will continue to be very careful in what we do.”
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) July 25, 2021
Fauci said the research was regulated, peer reviewed and given a high importance rating “to be able to go and do a survey of what was going on among the bat population because everyone in the world was trying to figure out what the original source of the original SARS CoV-1 was and in that context the research was done.” (RELATED: Fauci Warns There Will Be ‘Two Americas’—Vaccinated And Unvaccinated)
“It was almost as if you didn’t pursue that research you would be negligent because you were trying to find out how you could prevent this from happening again,” Fauci added.
He was pressed again by Tapper who asked if he was still confident about the research and explained that a peer review was doctors and scientists looking at the work of other researchers without considering the fact that China is an oppressive government that doesn’t allow transparency.
“We are always going to be very very careful, go through all kinds of review including the risk-benefit ratio,” Fauci said and added that researchers are “always willing” to review criteria used in the research. “If we were starting to look for bats in Secaucus, New Jersey, or Fairfax County, Virginia, it wouldn’t contribute very much to the standing of where SARS COV-1 originated.”
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