House committee says Fauci 'prompted' drafting of publication to 'disprove' COVID lab leak theory

Republicans on the House Coronavirus Pandemic Select Subcommittee on Sunday said there is evidence that suggests Dr. Anthony Fauci "prompted" the drafting of paper to "disprove" the theory that the COVID-19 virus originated in a lab leak. 

"The evidence available to the Select Subcommittee suggests that Dr. Anthony Fauci 'prompted' Dr. Kristian Andersen, Professor, Scripps Research (Scripps), to write Proximal Origin and that the goal was to 'disprove' any lab leak theory," the report states about the March 2020 paper "The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2."

The proximal origin paper concluded that the evidence indicates that COVID "is not a purposefully manipulated virus" and the study's authors said they "do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible." 

Before the paper was published, Fauci edited and approved it, the subcommittee stated. The article went on to become one of the best-read scientific works ever, and Fauci even cited it from the White House podium to quell any lab leak concerns to the American public.

Fauci, then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, reportedly pushed against the lab leak theory despite learning in February 2020 that COVID-19 may have originated in a lab leak in Wuhan, China, and it may have been purposely genetically manipulated, the House subcommittee also found.