Ex-US medical adviser Anthony Fauci says keep ‘open mind’ regarding origin of COVID

There is strong data to suggest that COVID-19 did not originate from a lab leak, the former Chief Medical Advisor to then US President Donald Trump Anthony Fauci told Al Arabiya in a special interview.

Speaking via video call, Fauci said that “the data show, and strongly suggest, even though it isn’t definitive, that it was in natural spillover from an animal reservoir,” urging to keep an “open mind” despite the lack of a definitive conclusion.

The issue of COVID-19’s origins has confounded even scientists and health officials who have publicly called for more research into the claims of the deadly disease originating from a lab leak.

Some studies show, like one published in 2020 in the Lancet Journal, which says the virus did not originate from a lab.

The virus is thought to have originated in China, in a wet market in Wuhan where the virus likely made a jump to people from animals.

Fauci said that there are “very frequent” virus origins in Southeast Asia and neighboring areas due to the “consistency of the animal human interface.”

“The wet markets that we see in Southeast Asia, China and the Far East indicate that humans are put into close proximity of animals that have the possibility of harboring viruses that could infect men. We know that historically, if you look over decades, 75 percent of all of the new infections in man are zoonotic, which means they jump from an animal reservoir to a human. And we’ve seen that consistently over the years,” the doctor said.

Safety measures

Over seven million people have died from the virus which broke out in 2020, despite a fairly quick implementation a range of measures including mandatory social distancing, wearing face masks and vaccinations.

In January, Fauci was questioned in a closed-door US Congressional hearing regarding distancing policies and other measures implemented in his time as the medical adviser. It marked the first public testimony since he stepped down from his role in 2022.

When asked about the six-feet distancing policy, Fauci responded saying it wasn’t his guideline but one created by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) before scientists understood that the new virus did not spread only by droplets across a certain distance.

Speaking about the measure to Al Arabiya, he said “…the original basis for the six foot rule was the assumption that droplets was the only way that the virus was spread, which turned out to be incorrect.”

He stated the example of Sweden, where COVID-19 cases where higher than its neighboring Scandinavian nations.

“In Sweden they were much more cavalier in not having social distancing. And that’s the reason why they did much more poorly than the other Scandinavian countries. So, Sweden is a good example. When you don’t social distance, you get a very large increase in infections,” he said.

Fauci has also been on the receiving end of hate and disapproval mainly from the Republican base, primarily due to differences of opinion with then US President Donald Trump.

Explaining the bad break with Trump, Fauci told Al Arabiya: “I had a very good relationship with President Trump in the first few months. It was only when he was realizing that the virus was not going to disappear, and I had to say it is not going to disappear, and then when he started saying hydroxychloroquine was going to be the cure, I had to say it’s not the cure because science proved that it’s not the cure. That’s when our relationship turned a bit sour.”

Fauci remained on in his position as medical adviser under the Joe Biden administration for a few years before resigning.