(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Former National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins was interviewed Friday by House lawmakers, and he reportedly admitted that the COVID-19 lab-leak hypothesis is plausible—a drastic reversal for a scientist who was involved in attempts to suppress information that COVID may have leaked from a lab.
As NIH director in 2020, Collins worked with Anthony Fauci in the drafting, publication, and public promotion of Proximal Origin—a highly influential paper written to suppress the COVID-19 lab-leak hypothesis.
But on Friday, Collins allegedly said he now finds the lab-leak theory plausible.
“Dr. Collins agreed with Dr. Fauci’s concession that the COVID-19 lab leak hypothesis is not a conspiracy theory,” the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic said Saturday, the day after the interview.
“Dr. Collins acknowledged that Dr. Fauci invited him to attend the infamous February 1, 2020 conference call that prompted the ‘Proximal Origin’ publication,” the committee added.
“This testimony directly contradicts Dr. Fauci’s previous statements and raises further concerns about the U.S. government’s role in suppressing and vilifying the lab-leak hypothesis.”
According to the committee, Collins further admitted that the “6 feet apart” social distancing recommendation promoted by federal health officials was likely not based on any science or data.
Collins’s interview with the Coronavirus Subcommittee follows a 14-hour interview of Fauci, who allegedly also admitted to the lab-leak theory’s plausibility.
Fauci had appeared before the subcommittee earlier last week, and was grilled by lawmakers on his handling of the pandemic under both the Trump and Biden administrations.
When pressed on why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidance in the early months of the pandemic urging people to remain “six feet apart,” Fauci admitted that this policy was “likely not based on scientific data.”
However, Fauci continued to “play semantics with the definition of a ‘lab-leak’” in an effort to cover up his own role downplaying the lab-leak theory,” the committee said.
The subcommittee has not released the full interview transcripts of either Fauci or Collins.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
