4000 published emails reveal what he knew at the beginning of the pandemic

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Distinguished Covid-19 consultants in the United States discussed claims that the virus leaked from Chinese laboratories in the early stages of the pandemic.

This revelation comes from a large number of emails from Dr. Anthony Fauci issued by the US government buzzing, CNN with Washington post.

Dr. Fauci was told that the virus had “unusual characteristics” when viewed at close range.

The claim that Covid came from the laboratory was widely dismissed at the time, but recently this theory has been injected with new vitality, and Dr. Fauci himself said that he “does not believe” that Covid is natural.

The email also showed that Dr. Fauci recommended that only infected people wear a mask, and everyone from celebrities to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (Mark Zuckerberg) contacted him for guidance or help.

With one notable exception, he also found his now consolidated celebrity status “unpleasant.”

These three news organizations managed to obtain approximately 4,000 pages of emails sent by Dr. Fauci between January 2020 and June 2020, but many of them were edited for sensitive content.

He wrote on February 2, 2020: “This is the White House is completely speeding, and I am in it.” Dr. Fauci said, this is reminiscent of the era when politicians were sent packages with anthrax.

February 2 was the day when the first coronavirus deaths were reported outside China and the Philippines, and the United States just reported the 10th case. Currently, the total is 3.3 million and the death toll is 600,000.

Just two days later, Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters that he was “really tired” and “not sleeping much these days.”

He told another reporter: “It feels like I was in the internship every other night and every weekend and was hospitalized for the first year, but I never actually left the hospital because the patient was very sick.”

Fauci knew about the laboratory leak theory early on

These emails revealed a theory that Covid did not come from the vegetable market in Wuhan, but from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the early days of the pandemic.

In February 2020, Dr. Fauci received a message from scientist Kristan Andersen stating that he should “Look carefully at all the sequences and see that some features (maybe) seem to be well-designed”.

Dr. Anderson said that there are some “unusual features” that make up a “small part” of the genome and may not be noticed, otherwise the virus looks “completely normal.”

“I should mention that after the discussion earlier today, Eddie, Bob, Mike, and myself all found that the genome was inconsistent with evolutionary expectations,” the expert added.

“But we must look at this issue more carefully, and there is still further analysis to be done, so these opinions may still change.”

An email that Dr. Fauci later sent to a senior member of his team contained a 2015 research paper on how to design the coronavirus to make it more transmissible and lethal.

“Hugh, we must speak in the morning…read this paper…” he wrote.

However, the team led by Dr. Andersen In a paper published in the journal Nature Medicine, they said that the virus is unlikely to escape from the laboratory.

On April 16, Francis Collings, director of the National Institutes of Health, sent an email to Dr. Fauci, stating that “conspiracy theories are gaining momentum” related to laboratory leak hypotheses. buzzing It is reported that Dr. Fauci’s response to this has completely disappeared when he received the e-mail.

related: Our understanding of the origin theories of major coronaviruses

Fauci “does not believe” that the new coronavirus is purely natural

Dr. Fauci recently said He “does not believe” that Covid was developed by himself.

At the United States Joint Facts Festival in early May, Dr. Fauci was asked whether Covid-19 occurred naturally.

“Actually not. I don’t believe this,” said the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“I think we should continue to investigate what happened in China until we continue to do our best to find out what happened.”

He added: “Of course, the investigator said it was likely to have emerged from an animal host and then infected the individual, but it could also be due to other reasons. We need to find out.”

Fauci’s response to celebrities and strangers

Actor Morgan Child, who had worked with him on HIV/AIDS awareness and education activities, suggested to Dr. Fauci that she use her Twitter account to pass on a message from a doctor to her followers.

He asked her if she would say on Twitter: “The American public should not be afraid, but should be prepared to alleviate the epidemic in this country through measures such as social distancing, telecommuting, and temporary closure of schools.”

Mr. Zuckerberg of Facebook emailed Dr. Fauci about the plan to establish a coronavirus “information center” on the website, and asked him to guide what information should be included.

Dr. Fauci is very patient. E-mails show that despite his heavy workload, he is sometimes happy to provide one-on-one advice to complete strangers.

Wear a mask or not

When someone asked if they should wear a mask to go to the airport, Dr. Fauci’s early advice was negative unless you thought you might be carrying the virus.

He wrote: “Masks are indeed prepared for infected people to prevent them from spreading infection to uninfected people, not to protect uninfected people from infection.”

“The typical mask you buy at the pharmacy is not really effective at blocking the virus. It is small enough to pass through the material. However, if someone coughs or sneezes at you, it may provide some slight benefits (to) stop a lot of droplets. .”

Throughout the email, Dr. Fauci was polite, but when someone suggested that he might be shut up by the Trump White House, his reaction was firm.

He wrote in a reply: “I don’t succumb to anyone except science, and I always speak my thoughts on public health.”

Avoid celebrity status with one exception

He also received emails from people who were not impressed by his advice, expertise, or guidance.

“Even though there are some crazy people in the world, everything is fine,” he told a Chinese health official, expressing concern about his being attacked.

E-mails revealed that he was reluctant to gain his new fame, calling it “not pleasant at all.”

But when actor Brad Pitt played him, he did feel pleasantly surprised Saturday night live Sketch.

“A reviewer SNL The show said that Pete looked “just like me.” That sentence made my year,” Fauci wrote in an email.

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