Fauci says he still believes COVID-19 arose naturally, but 'we cannot know 100 percent'

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday he still thinks COVID-19 originated naturally, rather than having arisen in and leaked from a Chinese lab, though he admitted that the ultimate answer is still elusive.

"I said many times, I feel the likelihood is still high, that this is a natural occurrence." Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said about the virus's origins during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.

"We cannot know 100 percent whether it is or is not or if other possibilities exist," he continued, alluding to increasing speculation that the virus may have arisen from experiments in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 

China has said the virus was first detected in humans at a market in Wuhan that sold exotic meats. Many experts have claimed over the last year that the virus almost certainly migrated from animals in the wild to humans and that the lab-leak theory is unlikely.

Fauci's statements come a day after Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul claimed that Fauci, a member of President Biden's coronavirus advisory team, committed perjury by allegedly lying about U.S. funding of risky viral experiments in Wuhan and elsewhere. 

"Do you believe [Fauci] perjured himself?" the Kentucky Republican was asked by Dave Brody Tuesday on Just the News's Water Cooler.

"Absolutely, he lied to the American people," Paul said. "There was gain of function research going on with Dr. Shi Zhengli at the Wuhan Institute."