Anthony Fauci is trying to memory-hole his past comments downplaying the lab leak theory

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There’s hardly a man alive today who can compete with White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci’s ability to talk out of both sides of his mouth.

The career bureaucrat alleged Wednesday he never really doubted that the coronavirus originated from a lab leak in Wuhan. He claimed, in fact, that he has always been open to the idea.

“If you go back then,” Fauci said during an appearance on CBS This Morning, “even though you lean towards feeling this is more likely a natural occurrence, we always felt that you got to keep an open mind — all of us.”

He added, “We didn’t get up and start announcing it, but what we said: ‘Keep an open mind and continue to look.’ So I think it’s a bit of a distortion to say that we deliberately suppressed that.”

This is revisionism. Fauci may not have been the biggest critic of the lab leak hypothesis last year, but he certainly did his fair share to undermine the theory as the stuff of crackpots.

In May 2020, for example, Fauci said in an interview with National Geographic, “If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what’s out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated.”

He added, “Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species.”

Fauci also accused those who disagreed with his assessment of the virus’s origins of promoting a “circular argument.” Later, in 2021, Fauci would actually argue that those who criticize him are actually criticizing “science.”

Well, well, spoken like a true scientist!

In April 2020, he dismissed the lab leak hypothesis by citing a single study as proof the virus came from natural origins. “There was a study recently that we can make available to you,” Fauci said, “where a group of highly qualified evolutionary virologists looked at the sequences there and the sequences in bats as they evolve. And the mutations that it took to get to the point where it is now is totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.”

Fauci’s about-face on the theory, claiming falsely he “always felt that you got to keep an open mind,” comes as members of the press and even lawmakers increasingly believe the virus may have escaped a lab. They’re inclined now to believe the lab theory, despite spending most of 2020 dismissing it out of hand as a “conspiracy theory,” even though there is no new evidence or data from when the hypothesis was first put forward by Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who was branded a lunatic for even suggesting it. The media simply changed their mind for reasons that are not entirely clear. It might have something to do with who’s in the White House.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised that Fauci has warmed up now to a theory that always had merit. After all, he has a talent for saying one thing before promoting another.

Recall that he was the one who downplayed and even discouraged the use of masks last year, saying they’d do little to protect against the virus. He admitted later he lied, explaining he did it to ensure there were enough masks to go around for hospitals and front-line workers.

In December 2020, Fauci claimed the United Kingdom “rushed” its vaccine development and distribution process. He backtracked later, explaining he got caught up in the moment when he said this.

In February of this year, Fauci encouraged wearing not one but two masks, saying, “It just makes common sense that it would be more effective.” He clarified later, saying, “There’s no data that indicates that that is going to make a difference.”

Also, in February, Fauci backed Vice President Kamala Harris’s bald-faced lie that the Biden White House had to put together a vaccine distribution plan from “scratch.”

“I believe what the vice president is referring to is what is the process of actually getting these doses into people,” he told CNN.

Earlier, however, Fauci said in reference to the Biden administration’s “starting from scratch” lie, “We certainly are not starting from scratch because there is activity going on in the distribution.”

Fauci’s real talent, it seems, is not so much investigating infectious diseases and communicating that knowledge and experience back to the public but in saying whatever is necessary to ensure he remains employed on the public dole.

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