9 March 2023
Former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield testified as a key witness during the US congressional committee's first public hearing on the origins of COVID-19. He claimed that the virus most likely came from the Wuhan lab. The hearing was on Wednesday, 8 March 2023.
Dr Redfield said that as a virologist, he didn’t think it was plausible that a virus would jump from a bat to humans and cause one of history’s deadliest pandemics.
The former head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said he was "sidelined" over his views on the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr Robert Redfield was the key witness in a US congressional committee's first public hearing as it investigates how the coronavirus emerged.
He said he was cut out of early discussions on where the virus came from because he suspected a lab leak.
Dr Redfield, who led the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when the outbreak began in 2020, was an early proponent of the lab leak theory.
He told the House select subcommittee, formed by the new Republican majority in the US House of Representatives, it was "not scientifically plausible" to him that the virus had natural origins.
He claimed he was "sidelined" at the beginning of the pandemic and excluded from meetings as his views were not in line with other major scientists like Dr Fauci, the de-facto face of the US pandemic response.
"It was told to me that they wanted a single narrative, and that I obviously had a different point of view," he said. "Science has debate and they squashed any debate."
During his testimony, Dr Redfield also spoke of his opposition to so-called gain of function research, in which viruses are manipulated to become more infectious in lab environments.
He said that US agencies had likely funded such research at the Wuhan institute.
The House probe comes a week after FBI Director Christopher Wray said an unintentional lab incident was "most likely" how Covid originated.
A few days before that, the US Department of Energy said it had found the virus was most likely the result of a lab leak in Wuhan, but could only reach that conclusion with "low confidence".
The video below is an extract from Dr Redfield's testimony:
[Below is an extract from a BBC article. See the link at the bottom
Dr Robert Redfield was the key witness in a US congressional committee's first public hearing as it investigates how the coronavirus emerged.
He said he was cut out of early discussions on where the virus came from because he suspected a lab leak.
Dr Redfield, who led the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when the outbreak began in 2020, was an early proponent of the lab leak theory.
He told the House select subcommittee, formed by the new Republican majority in the US House of Representatives, it was "not scientifically plausible" to him that the virus had natural origins.
He claimed he was "sidelined" at the beginning of the pandemic and excluded from meetings as his views were not in line with other major scientists like Dr Fauci, the de-facto face of the US pandemic response.
"It was told to me that they wanted a single narrative, and that I obviously had a different point of view," he said. "Science has debate and they squashed any debate."
During his testimony, Dr Redfield also spoke of his opposition to so-called gain of function research, in which viruses are manipulated to become more infectious in lab environments.
He said that US agencies had likely funded such research at the Wuhan institute.
The House probe comes a week after FBI Director Christopher Wray said an unintentional lab incident was "most likely" how Covid originated.
A few days before that, the US Department of Energy said it had found the virus was most likely the result of a lab leak in Wuhan, but could only reach that conclusion with "low confidence".
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