On June 16, 2022, Dr. Anthony Fauci sat down virtually with the Senate panel a day after contracting COVID. Fauci claimed that COVID-19 was caused by a natural occurrence. Researchers concluded that it’s very, very likely the disease came from animals. The disease then spread to human beings in the Wuhan region of China.

Papers have come out from highly qualified virologists and viral phylogeneticists that indicate that the disease very likely is a jumping species from an animal host, maybe through an intermediate host, and reaching humans.

“I certainly hope so, because we are not going to get an answer that is a definitive answer — I mean, even if they do cooperate, we may not do that,” Fauci told the Senate panel when asked whether China would cooperate with the investigations into the disease. 

He concluded this interview by stating: “But certainly, for example, if we want to continue surveillance of bat populations and other wild animals that might serve as an intermediary host — as well as understanding what was going on in some of their laboratories — I think it is essential to have cooperation and collaboration with the Chinese.”

 Although Fauci said that researchers would keep an open mind, he also claimed that most of the evidence supported a natural occurrence.