The former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes the virus causing COVID-19 has escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, according to a new interview.
Robert Redfield told CNN on Friday that his “opinion” was that SARS-CoV-2 – the new coronavirus responsible for killing 2.7 million people worldwide – did not evolve naturally.
“I believe I still think the most likely etiology of this pathology in Wuhan came from an escaped lab,” said Redfield, who led the CDC during the height of the pandemic. ‘Other people don’t believe that. That’s fine. Science will eventually figure it out. “
Researchers believe the deadly and highly transmissible coronavirus strain behind the global pandemic has mutated from a virus that infects animals – namely bats – to a virus that makes humans sick.
But some believe the virus was somehow released by the Wuhan Institute of Virology – which Axios says is the only laboratory in China authorized to study the most dangerous known pathogens.
“It is not uncommon for respiratory pathogens being worked on in a lab to infect the lab worker. … That does not imply intent, ”said Redfield. ‘It’s my opinion, right? But I am a virologist. I have spent my life in virology.
“I don’t believe this somehow came from a bat to a human and at that point, when the virus got into humans, became one of the most contagious viruses known in humanity for transmission from humans to humans. man.”
Redfield usually said that when a virus jumps from animal to human, “it takes time to figure out how to become more and more efficient in human-to-human transmission.”
A year after the pandemic, multiple variants of COVID-19 continue to emerge, including some that have been shown to be more transmissible than others.
“I just don’t think this makes any biological sense,” added Redfield.
SARS-CoV-2 was first discovered in Wuhan in December 2019 – with many scientists thinking it emerged in a wet market just under 9 miles from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
But Redfield said he believes the bug was already circulating in September or October of that year.
A probe from the World Health Organization recently concluded that it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus was the result of a laboratory accident – and that it likely originated in animals before spreading to humans.