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Comment by Anthony Fauci

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Former director, US NIAID
Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species.
AI Verified source (May 5, 2020)
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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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AI Verified Relevant: in source context, Fauci is answering whether SARS-CoV-2 was made in or accidentally released from a Chinese lab, and the quote says it "evolved in nature and then jumped species," directly addressing lab-origin versus zoonotic spillover and making a determinable stance substantially more likely. ([nationalgeographic.com](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/anthony-fauci-no-scientific-evidence-the-coronavirus-was-made-in-a-chinese-lab-cvd)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 2h ago
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AI Verified The quote directly opposes the statement: Fauci says the virus "evolved in nature and then jumped species." In the article’s surrounding Q&A, he also rejects the lab-escape version, saying that if it was brought from the wild into a lab, "it was in the wild to begin with." ([nationalgeographic.com](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/anthony-fauci-no-scientific-evidence-the-coronavirus-was-made-in-a-chinese-lab-cvd)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 2h ago

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AI Verified The provided National Geographic URL contains the exact quoted sentence attributed to Fauci, and the article is published May 5, 2020. A contemporaneous CNN transcript also says Fauci "tells National Geographic" that same sentence, corroborating the attribution. The stored author, date, source URL, and quote text are correct. ([nationalgeographic.com](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/anthony-fauci-no-scientific-evidence-the-coronavirus-was-made-in-a-chinese-lab-cvd)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 2h ago
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