<p>Scientists who authored a paper on the origins of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/covid-19">COVID-19</a> agreed the best course of action was to downplay the Chinese lab leak theory over concerns about international fallout, newly released internal messages show.</p>
<p>Dr. Andrew Rambaut and Dr. Kristian Andersen discussed the issue in an early February 2020 Slack conversation with colleagues, which took place several weeks before their &#8220;Proximal Origin&#8221; report got <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9">published in the journal</a> Nature Medicine in March of the same year.</p>
<p>Rambaut, on February 2, 2020, said, “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.&#8221;</p>
<p>In response to Rambaut’s message, Andersen replied, “Yup, I totally agree that that’s a very reasonable conclusion. Although I hate when politics is injected into science – but its [sic] impossible not to, especially given the circumstances.&#8221;</p>
<p>Republicans on the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic disclosed the Slack discussion in a <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/2023.07.11-SSCP-Interim-Staff-Report-Re.-Proximal-Origin_FINAL.pdf">staff report</a>, highlighting the exchange as evidence of &#8220;possible motives&#8221; by researchers to &#8220;defend China and play diplomat.&#8221;</p>
<p>During a <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?529219-1/hearing-origins-covid-19#:~:text=They%2C%20along%20with%20others%2C%20authored,that%20occurred%20in%20Wuhan%2C%20China.">hearing on Tuesday</a>, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) even confronted Andersen with the Slack messages, saying the witness had a &#8220;preferred political narrative.&#8221; Still, Andersen and Robert Garry, another author on the paper, both testified under oath that they stand by their report&#8217;s ultimate conclusion that COVID-19 was not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.</p>
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<p>The GOP staff report also raises concerns that the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and specifically Dr. Anthony Fauci and then-NIH Director Francis Collins, exerted undue influence over the &#8220;Proximal Origin&#8221; paper to dismiss the Chinese lab leak theory, which over time has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-intel-prompts-energy-dept-to-assess-covid-likely-leaked-from-wuhan-lab-report">gained traction</a> over the natural emergence theory among agencies in the U.S. intelligence community.</p>
<p>Democrats on the COVID panel <a href="https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/For%20Distribution-2023.07.11%20Proximal%20Origin%20Democratic%20Staff%20Report.pdf">released their own report</a> insisting that all evidence available to the subcommittee, including testimony from Anderson, &#8220;demonstrates that Dr. Fauci and Dr. Collins did not lead, oversee, or influence the drafting and publication of &#8216;Proximal Origin&#8217; or seek to suppress the lab leak theory through the paper’s conclusions.&#8221;</p>

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Scientists Agreed To Downplay Chinese Lab Leak Theory For Fear Of ‘S*** Show’, Messages Indicate

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Scientists Agreed To Downplay Chinese Lab Leak Theory For Fear Of ‘S*** Show’, Messages Indicate