COVID scientists accused of lab leak 'cover up' feared 's--- show' after blaming China for spread
Fox News
House Republicans released a report alleging that top scientists worked with Dr. Anthony Fauci to suppress the coronavirus lab leak theory due to political concerns.
"Given the s--- show that would happen if anyone serious accused the Chinese of even accidental release, my feeling is we should say that given there is no evidence of a specifically engineered virus, we cannot possibly distinguish between natural evolution and escape so we are content with ascribing it to natural process," Dr. Andrew Rambaut wrote in a Slack message to Dr. Kristian Andersen, Dr. Edward Holmes and Dr. Robert Garry, according to the report. Andrew Mark Miller is a writer at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
Rambaut, along with Andersen, Holmes and Garry, authored "The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2" on the website Virological in February 2020. That report said the lab leak theory was not "plausible," and subcommittee members say the paper was written at the behest of Fauci to "downplay the lab leak hypothesis and call those who believe it may be true conspiracy theorists."