Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottleib said on “Face the Nation” Sunday morning that the “side of the ledger that suggests this could have come out of a lab has continued to expand”:
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the FDA, said Sunday the "side of the ledger" that suggests COVID-19 could have emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China, has continued to grow as debate over the virus's origins reignited last week. https://t.co/YXRnHpQiuA
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) May 30, 2021
Earlier in the week, he pointed to the WSJ report that three researchers at the Wuhan lab sought hospital care with symptoms consistent with COVID-19:
Evidence that Covid-19 originally leaked from a Wuhan, China, virology lab is growing, Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Monday, pointing to reports that three researchers from the lab sought hospital care with a Covid-like illness in November 2019.
— Josh Meyer (@JoshMeyerDC) May 24, 2021
He said the main reason to know if this was a lab leak or not is to raise awareness, “including from intelligence services”:
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Gottlieb said it's important to understand the possibility the coronavirus came out of a lab so there can be heightened international attention on such facilities, including from intelligence services. https://t.co/HQoQEyfYFv
— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) May 30, 2021
Yeah, this might be a problem:
“These kinds of lab leaks happen all the time,” @ScottGottliebMD says of COVID-19 lab-leak theory. “Even here in the United States, we’ve had mishaps. In China, the last six known outbreaks of SARS-1 have been out of labs.” pic.twitter.com/NX2iWBIdBx
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) May 30, 2021
But he also said that “there’s nothing that we’re going to learn about the characteristics of the current virus by knowing its origin, quite frankly”:
“What we know about the virus, we already know about the virus,” @ScottGottliebMD says. “There’s nothing that we’re going to learn about the characteristics of the current virus by knowing its origin, quite frankly.” pic.twitter.com/wTjvoOjsaw
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) May 30, 2021
And although the “side of the ledger” pointing to a lab leak has “continued to expand,” the argument that COVID-19 came out of nature hasn’t moved in the other direction:
.@ScottGottliebMD on COVID-19 lab-leak theory: “The side of the ledger that suggests this could have come out of a lab has continued to expand. And the side of the ledger that suggests this could have come from a zoonotic source, come out of nature, really hasn’t budged.” pic.twitter.com/HoQXIODbDS
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) May 30, 2021
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