Opinion

Sen. Rand Paul Says COVID Lab Leak-Denying Doctor Should NOT Be WHO’s Top Scientist

   DailyWire.com
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 18: Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks during a hearing, with the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, on the Covid-19 response, on Capitol Hill on March 18, 2021 in Washington, DC. Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared before a joint hearing of the house committees to lay out a timeline for vaccinating children against COVID-19. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Getty Images)
Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Getty Images

Everything is in flux following a report that the U.S. Department of Energy has concluded that the virus that causes COVID likely leaked from a coronavirus lab in Wuhan, China.

Since then, there have been other unsettling reports that shine a spotlight on just who said what and when.

For instance, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s recently retired leading infectious disease expert, had long sought to sell the idea that the virus emerged naturally. Nearly three years ago, Fauci cited a study that found the virus’s mutations “consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.”

“There was a study recently,” Fauci told reporters on April 17, 2020, when asked if it was possible that virus came from a Chinese lab, “where a group of highly qualified evolutionary virologists looked at the sequences … in bats as they evolve and the mutations that it took to get to the point where it is now is totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.”

“So, the paper will be available. I don’t have the authors right now, but we can make it available to you,” Fauci said.

But new emails revealed by House Republicans show a completely different story. The emails indicate Fauci “prompted” that very study to disprove the theory that the virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan. In fact, he had final approval of the scientific paper he had commissioned, The New York Post reported.

Enter Dr. Jeremy Farrer. Like Fauci, he “prompted” the scientific paper. Farrar was then the head of the British nonprofit, the Wellcome Trust, which has long ties to the pharmaceutical industry. On the day the paper was published, emails show Farrar pushed for an edit to the piece. “Sorry to micromanage/micro edit! But would you be willing to change one sentence?”

He wanted to change the word “unlikely” to “improbable” so a sentence would read: “It is improbable that SARS-CoV-2 emerged through laboratory manipulation of an existing SARS-related coronavirus.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP

Now, Farrar is about to become chief scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO). He is set to take the six-figure role in the second quarter of this year after stepping down as director of Wellcome.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a doctor, told DailyMail.com that he opposes Farrar’s appointment.

“Jeremy Farrar, the guy who then publicly disdained the lab leak theory despite privately admitting he was still 50:50 on the lab leak should not be in charge of the WHO or any investigations into the origins of Covid,” Paul told the U.K. paper.

The Mail reported that emails leaked last year show Farrar privately expressed concern that COVID could have leaked from a lab in February 2020. “He famously told Dr. Anthony Fauci and colleagues that he was 50:50 between a lab leak and natural origin,” the paper said.

But just weeks later, Farrar signed his name to a letter in the Lancet medical publication denouncing the lab leak hypothesis as nothing more than a “conspiracy theory.”

Dr. David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia in the U.K., also told the Mail WHO should reconsider Farrar’s appointment.

“He first privately speculated on a lab leak origin for Covid. Yet, he then added his signature to a notorious Lancet letter seeking to debunk the lab leak theory. If he is to lead the WHO, it would be wise for Dr. Farrar to commission investigations of Covid’s origins entirely independent of the Organization’s hierarchy, himself included,” Livermore said.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

Got a tip worth investigating?

Your information could be the missing piece to an important story. Submit your tip today and make a difference.

Submit Tip
The Daily Wire   >  Read   >  Sen. Rand Paul Says COVID Lab Leak-Denying Doctor Should NOT Be WHO’s Top Scientist