Ex-CDC Director Says He Believes Coronavirus Escaped From A Chinese Lab

Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cast doubt on the prevalent theory about the origins of the coronavirus, saying in an interview released Friday that he believes the virus escaped from a science lab in China.

“I do not believe this somehow came from a bat to a human,” Redfield told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta for a special on the virus that airs Sunday.

“Normally, when a pathogen goes from a zoonot to human, it takes a while for it to figure out how to become more and more efficient in human to human transmission,” Redfield said.

Redfield, who helped lead the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, said that he believes that the virus started transmitting in Wuhan, China, in September or October of 2019, likely as the result of a leak from a lab in the city.