COVID May Have Been Part of Chinese Bioweapons Program, Says Top Trump Coronavirus Task Force Official
Former Trump administration coronavirus testing czar Adm. Brett Giroir said Thursday it is possible that COVID-19 may have been part of a Chinese offensive bioweapons program.
Giroir emphasized during a Fox News interview with host Bill Hemmer the most likely explanation for the start of the pandemic was an accidental lab leak of the virus.
He pointed to a World Health Organization report released in March, “which showed definitively there was no environmental source.”
“There was no intermediary host,” Giroir further explained. “There was really nothing linking this to any virus in the natural world, but on the other side, the evidence was becoming compelling.”
The former assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services noted the presence of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was doing research on bat coronaviruses within five miles of where the COVID outbreak is believed to have occurred.
Giroir recounted that there have been other examples of deadly lab leaks in the past.
“SARS has leaked out of laboratory and even caused secondary deaths,” he said.
“We know that in 1979, anthrax leaked out of a Soviet laboratory and killed 60 people. So lab leaks are not uncommon, and I really think data like people getting ill in November from the laboratory — if that proves true that coincides exactly when we know this virus hit China, so the evidence is there.”
Former White House Covid-19 task force member Admiral Brett Giroir says it is “not crazy” that covid-19 could have been engineered as part of a Chinese biological weapons program. pic.twitter.com/msPTTnqyVO
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 3, 2021
Giroir argued the evidence actually weighs against National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci’s oft-stated view that COVID evolved from nature.
Giroir acknowledged information coming out of China concerning the coronavirus was scarce.
“Remember, there was a huge cover-up by the Chinese Communist Party — the Chinese government — that really locked down all records,” he said.
Hemmer read a note that Giroir gave Fox News producers before coming on the show saying, “It is not outrageous to hypothesize, you say, that the virus could have been part of an offensive bioweapons program and leaked out accidentally.”
“That seems to be discounted by Dr. [Francis] Collins and other people,” Giroir responded. Collins is the current director of the National Institutes of Health.
“I think the most likely explanation is that it was gain of function mutation work,” Giroir continued, additionally stating that the U.S. does not have an offensive bioweapons program, but China likely does.
“There are multiple open sources of intel that suggest that China has an extensive biological weapons program and that it’s integrated between state laboratories, academia and private industry. So it is not crazy, as people suggest like Dr. Collins suggested, that this could have been part of a bio program. It is possible,” Giroir said.
The admiral observed COVID-19 is “not a great biological weapon, if you look at characteristics, but it certainly could have been part of a program.”
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“And again, I’m not saying that it was. I’m saying that should still be considered a possibility.”
Giroir reiterated the most likely scenario is that COVID-19 accidentally leaked from a lab as part of “dangerous research.”
Hemmer highlighted that Fauci still believes the coronavirus very likely occurred naturally but is open to the idea that it may not have.
The Fox News host played video clips from last year in which Fauci repeatedly spoke of the idea of the virus naturally passing from animal to human.
“The statement from last year was completely false,” Giroir said in response. “There was no pattern of mutations that suggest that it went right from an animal in a natural situation to humans. And there’s still no evidence to show that.
“So that statement was completely wrong. It was obvious to be antagonistic to President [Donald] Trump and to the administration, and I think there is a lot of CYA going on right now.”
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