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Comment by Marty Makary

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Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), surgeon and public health researcher at Johns Hopkins
So it's crazy to think that this entire nightmare was probably the result of some scientists messing with Mother Nature in a laboratory with technology exported from the United States that is inserting a furin cleavage site.
AI Verified (May 5, 2025)
Source:
FactCheck.org
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Policy proposals and claims
COVID-19 originated from a lab-related incident rather than natural zoonotic spillover
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Statement relation comments

AI Verified Relevant: in the source context, the speaker first says COVID 'came from the Wuhan lab' and then describes the pandemic as 'probably' resulting from scientists altering the virus in a laboratory. That directly addresses lab-origin versus natural spillover and makes a pro-lab-incident stance substantially more likely. ([govinfo.gov](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/DCPD-202500556/pdf/DCPD-202500556.pdf)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 1h ago
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AI Verified The author is clearly for: in context, Makary says COVID "came from the Wuhan lab," calls that "the leading theory among scientists," and says the pandemic was "probably the result of some scientists messing with Mother Nature in a laboratory." That is a direct endorsement of a lab-related origin over natural spillover, even though he says "probably" rather than with certainty. ([govinfo.gov](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/DCPD-202500556/pdf/DCPD-202500556.pdf)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 1h ago

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AI Verified Authentic. The govinfo PDF titled "Remarks at a Document Signing Ceremony and an Exchange With Reporters" is dated 2025-05-05 and contains the quote verbatim on page 3, lines 138-140, immediately after "Commissioner Makary" is identified as speaking; the same wording appears in the American Presidency Project transcript. FDA’s official leadership page identifies him as Martin A. Makary / Dr. Marty Makary, so the attribution to Marty Makary is correct. The submitter-provided passage "FactCheck.org" is unrelated, but the source URL itself is fetchable and sufficient. ([govinfo.gov](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/DCPD-202500556/pdf/DCPD-202500556.pdf)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 1h ago
replying to Marty Makary