Drosten and the emails on Covid origins

A 5 minute read

Dear Reader,

Questions over Dr. Christian Drosten’s role in explaining the origins of the coronavirus to the German public need to be asked in light of the release of previously unseen emails between Anthony Fauci and other public health officials in the US.

The emails show that Drosten, head of virology at Berlin’s Charite University Hospital, knew in early 2020 that leading virologists were concerned that the virus had escaped from a laboratory, but he nonetheless made efforts to convince the German public that this was a conspiracy theory.

The emails, which have been seen by Republican members of the US congress, show that Drosten was involved in a conference call on February 1st 2020, where at least two participants said they were inclined to believe that the virus had been manipulated in a lab.

The call was organised by Fauci, the head of the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US, to discuss early lessons on the SARS-Cov-2 virus.

On the line were at least eleven leading experts from across the globe. Although the entire meeting notes have not been released, it is clear that serious credence was given to the possibility that the virus, first detected in Wuhan, emerged from a lab run by the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Michael Farzan, an immunologist at the Scripps Research institute, was bothered by the virus’ furin cleavage site, saying he had “a hard time explaining that as an event outside the lab” and added that “there are possible ways in nature, but highly unlikely.”