Fauci: Would Have Been "Negligent" Not To Fund Research At Wuhan Lab Because "SARS-CoV-1 Originated In China" | Video | RealClearPolitics

Fauci: Would Have Been "Negligent" Not To Fund Research At Wuhan Lab Because "SARS-CoV-1 Originated In China" | Video | RealClearPolitics: Dr. Anthony Fauci responded to criticism from Sen. Rand Paul about the U.S. government's role in funding coronavirus research in Wuhan, China on CNN on Sunday morning. "All the evidence is that [COVID-19] came from the lab, and there will be responsibility for those who funded the lab, including yourself," Paul said during a Senate hearing this week. Fauci defended the research, saying it would have been "negligent" not to work with China to research the origin of SARS-COV-1 (2003's SARS) because it originated in China. COVID-19, also called SARS-COV-2, is "very similar" to SARS-COV-1," Fauci said. "SARS-CoV-1 originated in China. And that is the reason. If we were starting to look for bats in Secaucus, New Jersey, or Fairfax County, Virginia, it wouldn't contribute very much to our understanding of where one SARS-CoV-1 originated," he told anchor Jake Tapper. "It was a peer-reviewed proposal that was peer-reviewed and given a very high rating for the importance of why it should be done," Fauci said about the research in Wuhan. "To be able to go and do a survey of what was going on among the bat population, because everyone in the world was trying to figure out what the orig