Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has said that “in all likelihood”, the COVID-19 virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, rather than from animal sources, in a recent interview with Fox News.
During an appearance on Fox News’ Unfiltered show, Sen. Paul noted that the coronavirus was not particularly infectious among animals.
“When you look at COVID-19, it doesn’t even seem to infect bats very well,” he said. It doesn’t infect an intermediate animal. They checked 80,000 animals at the wet markets in Wuhan. None of the animals at the wet market would accept COVID-19 or were positive for it. But it looks like it’s most well-adapted for humans.”
Sen. Paul used this evidence and concluded that it was very likely that the origin of COVID-19 was in a Wuhan lab, lending credence to a theory supported by former President Trump, which was derided by Democrats and the scientific establishment during Trump’s tenure as President.
“This is worrisome, and yet more evidence that this, in all likelihood, came from the lab,” Sen. Paul added.
Sen. Paul also said that there may be ulterior motives on the part of scientists that are pushing back on this theory and defending the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“I think if you look back at the last year and you look at the people who are discounting the theory that it originated in a lab, they are precisely the same scientists who were sending the funding to the lab,” Sen. Paul said, referring to U.S.-funded research at the Institute. “So, there is a real possibility that they have a conflict of interest.”
Sen. Paul’s remarks represent a damning indictment of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), which has collaborated with the Wuhan Institute in the past.