- Robert Redfield, former CDC Director, said his biggest fear for a future pandemic is a genetically manipulated bird flu, given that NIH-funded scientists in 2012 published instructions for making such a pathogen cross the “species barrier” to humans, a highly unlikely result from viral evolution.
- Redfield said that he argued to then-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci — his future antagonist on COVID origins and gain-of-function research — that the research should not be published.
- “I think it’s a miracle that no one’s used that yet,” Redfield said. “But I do think we’re at high risk for laboratory-created bird flu that will have high pathogenicity for man,” given the “highly inadequate” biosecurity of dozens of labs handling dangerous pathogens.
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Ex-CDC Director Says Fauci ‘Gave Terrorists A Recipe’ For Bird Flu, Predicts ‘Major Pandemic’
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 11: Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House Chief Medical Advisor and Director of the NIAID, removes his mask to give an opening statement at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on January 11, 2022 in Washington, D.C. The committee will hear testimony about the federal response to COVID-19 and new, emerging variants. (Photo by Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images)
