The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) top official ignited fresh debate on Wednesday by accusing Dr Anthony Fauci on the “Pod Force One” podcast of suppressing early scrutiny of COVID-19’s origins, calling the alleged effort a “massive cover-up” during the first months of the pandemic.
The claims, made by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, revive long-running questions about whether senior U.S. health officials sought to downplay or dismiss discussion of a possible Chinese lab-related origin of the COVID-19 virus in early 2020.
‘No Brainer’ Where Virus Came From
Makary argued that Fauci, then director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, worked aggressively behind the scenes to shape scientific and public messaging, including commissioning research intended to discredit the lab-leak hypothesis.
His comments refer in part to The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2, a widely cited paper published in March 2020 that concluded the virus most likely emerged from a natural spillover event.
Internal emails released by congressional investigators in recent years show some of the paper’s authors had privately considered a lab leak plausible before ultimately rejecting it in their published work.
“This is not rocket science. It’s a no-brainer where it came from,” Makary said.
The correspondence also documented urgent discussions among U.S. health officials in late January and early February 2020, as scientists debated genomic features of the newly detected virus.
Makary suggested those exchanges demonstrate undue influence by Fauci and then NIH director Francis Collins, who he says helped steer the scientific consensus before a full investigation could occur.
Fauci Lied To Congress, Makary Says
Fauci has repeatedly denied allegations of a cover-up, calling similar claims “preposterous.” In one of his final acts before leaving the White House, former President Joe Biden also issued a preemptive pardon to Fauci, shielding him from potential criminal investigations or prosecutions.
Makary claimed that Fauci and Collins “meticulously worked in their bureaucratic ways to water down” Obama-era rules against gain-of-function research and approve federal grants for the controversial practice of genetically altering viruses.
Gain-of-function research is when scientists intentionally give a virus or organism new abilities in the lab so they can study how it might behave and learn how to better protect people from potential threats.
“They did everything you could do bureaucratically,” Makary said, adding that Fauci then “parsed his words to basically lie to Congress” about gain-of-function research.
Makary’s remarks come as political pressure continues to mount for greater transparency surrounding U.S. oversight of high-risk virology research and the government's handling of early pandemic assessments.
"What I'm shocked by, coming from the faculty at Johns Hopkins, is none of my colleagues knew any of this,” Makary added.
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