U.S. Infectious Disease Expert Fauci Calls on China to Release Medical Records of Wuhan Lab Researchers

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has called on China to release the medical records of nine people whose illnesses could provide important clues as to whether the new coronavirus was first caused by a laboratory leak. The source of the new coronavirus is highly controversial, and U.S. intelligence agencies are still reviewing reports that researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research had developed serious illnesses a month before the first case of new coronavirus was reported in 2019.

U.S. infectious disease expert Fauci has called on China to release medical records of researchers at the Wuhan lab. The Financial Times (FT) on Thursday said Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has called on China to release the medical records of nine people whose conditions could provide important clues as to whether the new coronavirus was first caused by a laboratory leak, according to a Reuters report.

According to the newspaper, Fauci was quoted as saying, “I want to see the medical records of the three people who reportedly got sick in 2019. Did they actually get sick, and if so, what did they get?”

The source of the new coronavirus is highly controversial, and U.S. intelligence agencies are still reviewing reports that researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research had become seriously ill a month before the first case of new coronavirus was reported in 2019.

But Chinese scientists and officials have been refuting the hypothesis that the virus was a laboratory leak, saying it may have spread elsewhere before the Wuhan outbreak, and may have even entered China through imported frozen food shipments or the wildlife trade.

Fauci, who still believes the virus was first transmitted to humans through animals, noted that even if researchers at the lab did contract the new coronavirus, they may have contracted it from elsewhere, according to the Financial Times report.