Not convinced that Covid-19 developed naturally: Dr Anthony Fauci

Americarsquos top expert on infectious diseases Dr Anthony Fauci said he is ldquonot convincedrdquo the novel Coronavirus developed naturally and has called for an open investigation into the origins of the Covid19 virusWhen Dr Fauci was asked at an event whether he was still confident that the Coronavirus developed naturally he said ldquoI am not convinced about that I think we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we continue to find out to the best of our ability what happenedrdquoldquoCertainly the people who investigated it say it likely was the emergence from an animal reservoir that then infected individuals but it could have been something else and we need to find that out So you know thatrsquos the reason why I said Irsquom perfectly in favour of any investigation that looks into the origin of the virusrdquo Dr Fauci was quoted by Fox NewsThe Biden administrationrsquos top medical adviser made these remarks during lsquoUnited Facts of America A Festival of FactCheckingrsquo eventWhen he was asked categorically about whether the Covid19 virus could not have occurred by serial passage in a laboratory the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases NIAID said that he is fully in favour of any further investigation of what went on in ChinaHowever he did not explicitly rule out such a possibility He repeated that the NIH and NIAID categorically have not funded gain of function research to be conducted in the Wuhan Institute of Virology WIVLast year Dr Fauci had largely dismissed the theory that the deadly Covid19 virus due to which over 165 million people have been infected worldwide and over 35 million people died so far was genetically engineered and had leaked from a lab in Wuhan ChinaFox News noted that the Donald Trump administration officials and Republicans have long argued there is a high chance Covid19 was the result of a lab leak in China as per Fox NewsThe World Health Organization WHO had last week declared the lab leak theory ldquoextremely unlikelyrdquo but even Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus WHO chief has said the research teamrsquos assessment on whether the virus entered the human population following a laboratory incident was not ldquoextensive enoughrdquo and requires further investigation AgenciesJapan accelerates vaccination driveJapan mobilised military doctors and nurses to give shots to elderly people in Tokyo and Osaka on Monday as the government desperately tries to accelerate its vaccination rollout and curb Coronavirus infections just two months before hosting the Olympics Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is determined to hold the Olympics in Tokyo after a oneyear delay and has made an ambitious pledge to finish vaccinating the countryrsquos 36 million elderly people by the end of July despite scepticism itrsquos possibleNo Emirates flights from India till June 14UAE flag carrier Emirates has announced the extension of suspension of its passenger flights from India until June 14 in the wake of the Covid19 pandemic situation in the South Asian country The Dubaibased airline had announced the suspension first on April 24 as a devastating second wave of the pandemic hit India leading to record high number of daily cases and deathsAlso ReadPaediatric trials of Covaxin may begin in June465030No of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours167243444Total no of cases worldwide3465348Total no of deaths worldwideSource WHOJohns HopkinsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever