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Fauci on Covid lab leak theory: ‘I have a completely open mind’

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Anthony Fauci, the retiring top official in the United States response to the Covid-19 pandemic, said Sunday he has “a completely open mind” about the origins of the respiratory virus.

“I have a completely open mind about that, despite people saying that I don’t,” Fauci said, when asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about the theory that the virus may have leaked from a lab in China in 2019.

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Fauci acknowledged that a group of international, respected virologists has written that strong evidence shows the virus jumped from animals to humans, but said it “hasn’t been definitively proven.”

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“Even when there’s nothing to hide, they act in a suspicious, non-transparent way,” Fauci said of the Chinese government.

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A report this fall from Vanity Fair and ProPublica, which said the Wuhan Institute of Virology dealt with an unspecified emergency at the time Covid-19 began, brought back to the forefront a debate about whether the virus might have come from a lab.

Speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation” in a separate interview Sunday, Fauci said he’d like to know “all of the details of what went on with the original people who were infected.”

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On “Meet the Press,” he also criticized that government’s strict ongoing response to Covid-19, which has sparked recent protests among people in China.

“Their approach has been very, very severe and rather draconian in the kinds of shutdowns without a seeming purpose,” Fauci said to host Chuck Todd.

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Ashish Jha, coordinator of the White House’s Covid-19 response, added Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that “lockdown and zero Covid is going to very difficult to sustain.”

Chinese government officials, under President Xi Jinping, have adopted a “zero Covid” policy against the disease, resulting in widespread lockdowns and travel restrictions in recent days.

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Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” he didn’t yet know whether the protests would amount to a real threat against Xi’s leadership.

“These dictators unfortunately have pretty sophisticated means of staying in power,” Murphy said.

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