COVID Sensation: Trump's Former CDC Director Claims 'There is a Real Possibility' Virus was Born in North Carolina and NOT From Wuhan Lab
Donald Trump's former DCD Director Robert Redfield claims Covid may have been born from North Carolina.
Nov. 18 2024, Published 10:09 a.m. ET
Donald Trump's former DCD Director has sensationally claimed Covid-19 may have been born from a laboratory in North Carolina - not Wuhan.
RadarOnline.com can reveal Robert Redfield, 73, has previously been a backer of the "lab leak" theory which deemed the disease came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China
Redfield previously backed belief 'lab leak' in Wuhan was Covid trigger.
But in an unlikely turnaround, Redfield says the disease may have origins in the Tar Heel State as part of a secret biodefense program.
He now argues China did not necessarily create the virus and did the best they could once "they realized they had a problem".
However, he calls the United States' role in the development of the virus "substantial."
He claims the American government holds responsibility for funding research into the NIH, USAID and the Department of Defense.
Redfield says the disease may have origins in the Tar Heel State as part of a secret biodefense program.
Speaking to the Third Opinion podcast, Redfield then calls out researcher Dr. Ralph Baric from the University of North Carolina, whom he calls "the scientific mastermind" behind all of this.
He said: "I think he probably helped create some of the original viral lines, but I can't prove that. But he was very involved."
When pressed on whether the virus was "actually developed here" and the Chinese may have been wrongfully accused of developing the virus, Redfield doubles down.
Redfield says Chapel Hill, the hometown of the University of North Carolina, was Covid's birthplace.
He said: "Well, I don’t know if they were framed, but I think there is a real possibility that the virus’s birthplace was Chapel Hill,' Redfield said, naming the hometown of the University of North Carolina.
The virus is believed to have originated in bats, but debate is currently raging over whether it leaked from the Wuhan lab — and whether it was modified by Chinese scientists to become contagious beforehand.
- Covid Scandal: Fauci Commissioned Report To 'Disprove' Wuhan Lab Leak Theory — Then Pretended Not To Know Author
- Republicans Slam Dr. Anthony Fauci For 'Lying' About Origins Of Covid-19 After DOE Report Suggests Virus Leaked From Chinese Lab
- Early Theories Suggesting COVID-19 Was Engineered In A Lab Were Allegedly Shut Down To Protect 'Science'
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Trump met with Joe Biden at the White House last week.
Redfield, who was CDC director under the Trump administration, has in the past said Fauci was "holding on tightly" to the theory the virus evolved naturally, before likening the White House COVID tsar to a "dog with a bone."
And in 2021, he slammed the "highly compromised" World Health Organiazationfor not cracking down on China at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and for letting its communist government dictate the terms of the WHO probe into the origins of COVID.
Trump worked closely with Redfield during the pandemic during his first stint as president.
Trump, 78, who met with president Joe Biden, 81, last week at the White House, and his supporters were widely derided for sharing the same theory when he was president.
Redfield, who doesn't believe the virus was intentionally leaked by China, said COVID-19's ability to spread rapidly from human-to-human was unlike other coronaviruses such as SARS.
He was "disappointed" there was a lack of openness within the scientific community early on to investigate both hypotheses.
Some scientists, the media and academics long heaped scorn on the lab leak hypothesis, insisting that it was a fringe conspiracy theory and even racist after Trump embraced the idea.
New evidence, including reports of three workers at the Wuhan lab who fell serious;y ill with COVID-like symptoms in November 2019, has forced a sober reassessment among doubters.
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