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Former US health official Anthony Fauci counters accusations he played role in Covid-19 origins
- Long-time American infectious disease expert tells Republican-led House panel that bribery allegations are ‘absolutely false and simply preposterous’
- Much of China-linked suspicion centres on grants given to US virus-hunting non-profit group by medical research agency that Fauci once headed
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Robert Delaneyin Washington
Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert until 2022, pushed back on Monday against Republican-led accusations that he had helped fund research that sparked the coronavirus pandemic.
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Under heated questioning, Fauci, 83, who was the highest-profile public health official steering the US government’s pandemic response, also challenged allegations that he covered up the possibility that the virus causing the illness originated in a laboratory.
“The accusation being circulated that I influenced the scientists to change their minds [about a possible lab leak] by bribing them with millions of dollars in grant money is absolutely false and simply preposterous,” the retired immunologist testified.
“I had no input into the content of the published paper.
“The second issue is a false accusation that I tried to cover up the possibility that the virus originated from a lab. In fact, the truth is exactly the opposite,” he added.
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