Fauci denies scientists ‘deliberately suppressed’ Wuhan lab leak theory

Dr. Anthony Fauci denied that health officials “deliberately suppressed” theories that COVID-19 came from a laboratory — insisting he always encouraged scientists to have an “open mind” while investigating its origins.

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