Former President Donald Trump’s adviser believes Covid-19 could have leaked from a Wuhan lab where scientists were working on vaccines for similar viruses.
Infectious diseases expert and former presidential Covid adviser Dr Deborah Birx told The Mail on Sunday that coronavirus ‘came out of the box ready to infect’ when it emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2020.
It takes viruses months, if not years, to infect humans. But, Dr Birx said, Covid ‘was already more infectious than flu when it first arrived’.
She said that meant Covid was either an ‘abnormal thing of nature’ or that Chinese scientists were ‘working on coronavirus vaccines’ and became infected.
‘It happens, labs aren’t perfect, people aren’t perfect, we make mistakes and there can be contamination,’ she said.
Former US President Donald Trump’s Covid adviser Dr Deborah Birx (pictured) believes the virus could have leaked from a lab where it was being worked on by scientists
China was accused of covering up the fact that Covid had been so infectious.
Birx said Covid’s infectiousness was consistent with a virus which had been experimented on in a lab.
“In labs, you can grow the virus inside human cells. This allows it to adapt better. Each time it passes through human cells it becomes more adapted,’ she said.
Because people can catch Covid asymptomatically – meaning they don’t show symptoms – Dr Birx argues a Wuhan scientist could have easily walked out of the lab with it.
‘Someone working in the lab with one of the strains could’ve caught it and not known they had it,’ she said.
Dr Birx also added that lives could’ve been saved if China had admitted the virus spread asymptomatically, when it was first discovered.
‘China was implying that they were containing it, but asymptomatic spread cannot be contained without testing,’ she said.
Donald Trump, then President, listens to Dr. Deborah Birx (White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator) speak about Covid 2020
Birx was pictured in the above viral reaction to Trump 2020’s comments about injecting disinfectant as a cure for coronavirus
‘I think the world lost several months of preparation because we were thinking there wasn’t that level of human-to-human spread when there clearly was.’
Dr Birx’s comments came a month after the MoS revealed that the head of the World Health Organization privately believes the Covid pandemic started following a Chinese lab leak.
China has repeatedly denied claims of a lab leak and branded the idea as a ‘conspiracy theory’.
But alternative theories – that Covid came from human contact with bats or from a meat market in Wuhan – are not backed by evidence.
The idea of a lab leak was promoted early but it was rebuffed by the liberal media, who laughed at the idea and called it racism.
Many mainstream left-leaning news websites took more than one year after the virus spread to admit that the laboratory theory was valid.
Huffington Post and other outlets even labeled any suggestion that the virus might have originated in a laboratory as a “toxic conspiracy theory.”
Donald Trump’s May 1st 2020 statement that he has ‘a high level of confidence’ the virus was escaping from a laboratory made headlines by CNN, NPR, and the New York Times.
CNN seemed almost to be laughing at the possibility that this virus may have originated in a laboratory.
The Washington Post and NPR dismissed any suggestion that the virus might have originated in a lab.
Although few were able or willing to believe that COVID-19 originated from a research facility, some media outlets, such as the Daily Mail, questioned the story.
Tucker Carlson of Fox News was very clear when he demanded an investigation into the possibility that it might have escaped from his lab.
In early 2021 came first indications that opinions were beginning to shift.
In January, a World Health Organization (WHO) report only served to raise more questions after Beijing strictly controlled an on-site visit and who the researchers compiling the report spoke to. Only three hours were allowed for the WHO team to enter the Wuhan lab. They also couldn’t access any safety logs, records or testing results of Wuhan staff.
By May 11, 2021, the leading public health expert in the United States, Dr Anthony Fauci, had accepted that the idea of the virus escaping from a lab had been too quickly dismissed.
Fauci was asked if the virus had originated naturally and he replied that he would like to investigate the issue further.
He said, “I’m not sure about that.” “I believe we should continue investigating what took place in China, until we find out the truth to our best ability.
Birx and Dr Fauci were President Trump’s two most prominent advisers at the outbreak of the pandemic. They spoke regularly alongside each other.
Birx, the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator was at the April 2020 Press Conference. During which President Trump suggested that people inject disinfectant to treat COVID symptoms, Birx also attended.
Birx’s closeup reaction to the music was viral, and many people shared it online.
Birx looked up briefly as despair set in.
Trump claimed that bleach can kill the virus, and this was criticized by the health expert.
‘Frankly, I didn´t know how to handle that episode,’ Birx told ABC television in March 2021. “I think about it every single day.”
Things began to fall apart by 2020. Trump had initially considered her a “classy” and “a lady”, according to White House sources.
The president brought in Dr Scott Atlas to replace her. He was a radiology specialist with no experience in epidemiology, who Trump had heard speak on Fox News.
Trump called Birx later pathetic when she advised Americans about the ‘extraordinarily wide spread’ pandemic in America.
Birx took then her message to the states and localities. She reportedly tried to counter Atlas’ public messaging about masks and social ditancing.
Earlier this year, Birx published a tell-all memoir of her time as the Covid-19 task force coordinator; ‘Silent Invasion: The Untold Story of The Trump Administration, COVID-19, and Preventing the Next Pandemic Before It´s Too Late.’
Birx stated that he wrote “Silent Invasion” to show the extent of my observations as he tried to save peoples’ lives in this terrible time. “I expose the real cost of federal government mistakes, and I clarify what went well, yet remain largely unnoticed – the insight and innovation that saved lives during this pandemic, and is essential for preparing for the next.
Birx brought a stellar reputation to the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Birx, a public servant who has been serving since Reagan’s administration, was a US Army doctor and a internationally recognized AIDS researcher.
To assist the task force, she was removed in February 2020 from her position of ambassador for the US as global AIDS coordinator.
Trump was more gracious to her than Dr Anthony Fauci of National Institutes of Health who often contradicted Trump.
Birx received criticism for traveling to Delaware for Thanksgiving 2020, despite being advised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) not to travel on holidays.
Paige Reffe, her husband and one of her children, was with her for Black Friday.
Birx maintained that her 50-hour journey to Fenwick Island was required to complete winterization work on the property. She also stated she didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Fenwick Island.
Birx told Congress investigators in October that 2020’s election was a distraction from Trump’s Covid response. She estimated the cost to the U.S. at around 130,000 lives.
Birx stated that the election year “just took peoples’ time away and distracted them from the pandemic in his personal opinion.”
She concluded that ‘if we had implemented all the mandates for masks and the decrease in indoor eating, as well as the getting close friends and families to be aware of the danger of gathering in private houses, we could probably have reduced fatalities to the 30-percent to 40 percent range’.
Birx testified also about her fights with Dr. Atlas.
Birx stated that he could see the effects of what was happening across America and the severity and impact of the virus in the sickest. He also expressed concern for those less ill. “And within the White House, is someone that basically wants community to grow.
This week, the UK saw 200,000 Covid deaths. However, the disease has claimed six million victims worldwide.