Former CDC chief suspects COVID-19 likely came from lab
Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during much of the Trump administration, said in an interview aired Friday that he believes COVID-19 likely originated from a lab in Wuhan, China, but he did not provide evidence to support the theory.
Redfield’s personal opinion is not in line with the prevailing scientific premise that the virus emerged either through animal-to-human transmission or shipment of frozen food products.
“I still think the most likely etiology of this pathology in Wuhan was from a laboratory,” Redfield told CNN. “Other people don’t believe that. That’s fine.”
He said he didn’t think there was an intentional effort to leak the virus and that he believes COVID began to spread by September or October of 2019. When the menacing illness first came to the attention of the U.S. public in January 2020, it was thought to have emerged the previous month.
A team compiled by the World Health Organization visited the central Chinese metropolis of Wuhan and is preparing a report on the virus’s potential source. The group has already said it does not consider a lab leak to be the most likely origin.
That compilation of the report has been controversial, and China has faced accusations of a lack of transparency with international investigators.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology is located within 10 miles of the wet market believed by some to have played a role in sparking the pandemic, which has killed more than 2.7 million people around the world.
Redfield told CNN he was expressing “only opinion” as he cast doubt on the notion that “one of the most infectious viruses that we know in humanity” went from a bat to a human.
“Science will eventually figure it out,” he said.
—New York Daily News
At least 32 dead in Egypt train collision
At least 32 people died on Friday after two passenger trains collided south of Cairo, the Health Ministry said.
The collision took place in the southern province of Sohag on Friday, causing some carriages to derail, Egyptian media said.
A Health Ministry spokesman said 84 others were injured in the crash, the latest in a string of rail crashes in the country.
The state-run railway authority said that one of the two trains suddenly stopped after some people tampered with an emergency device on the train.
The second train plowed into the stationary train, the authority added in a statement.
Footage posted online showed carriages overturned.
Egypt’s chief prosecutor Hamada al-Sawy ordered an immediate investigation into the accident, state television said.
—dpa
DeSantis pushes CDC to let Florida cruise ships sail again
ORLANDO, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday urged the federal government to allow Florida-based cruise ships to start sailing again this June.
“We need to be able to get these cruise lines operating again,” DeSantis said during a discussion with cruise industry leaders at Port Canaveral, a crucial dock for Florida-based cruise ships. “In Florida, we have everything going on except the cruise lines because the federal government won’t let the cruise lines sail.”
He added, “We’re the most crippled by what they’re doing with this national cruise lockdown, and so we get liberated from that, you’re going to be able to see maybe tens of thousands, maybe even 100,000 more people going back to work.”
Meeting at the new Cruise Terminal 3, executives from Carnival, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, MSC Cruises and Disney Cruise Line joined DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody and other politicians to highlight the industry’s desire to get more information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has kept cruise ships from sailing from U.S. ports since last March.
“You see here the five leading cruise line companies in the world,” said Norwegian Cruise Line President and CEO Harry Sommer. “We are united to support you in this effort to take the cruise industry forward. We just ask Dr. (Rochelle) Walensky from the CDC to come and have a dialogue with us. That’s our only request.”
While under a conditional sail order from the CDC since last fall, the lines remain at a standstill awaiting more guidance from the agency.
—Orlando Sentinel
NC congressman fined $11,000 for campaign finance reporting violations
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop’s campaign was fined more than $11,000 for campaign finance reporting violations during his 2019 special election victory.
The campaign paid the fine last year, but the case was just recently made public by the Federal Election Commission, which keeps cases confidential until they are closed. The case closed with a Feb. 23 letter to Bishop’s campaign treasurer.
Bishop, a Charlotte Republican, defeated Democrat Dan McCready in a 2019 special election in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District. It was his first run for federal office after winning one term in the state House and two in the state Senate.
The State Board of Elections voted for a new election in the district after not certifying the results of the 2018 election due to allegations of fraud by a campaign operative of Republican candidate Mark Harris. Bishop won reelection in November 2020.
His congressional office did not respond to email and phone messages from a reporter from The Charlotte Observer and News & Observer seeking comment about the FEC case. The reporter also reached out to his campaign.
The special election was on Sept. 10, 2019.
—The Charlotte Observer
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