'It came out of the box ready to infect': Deborah Birx claims Covid could have leaked from Chinese lab
Former Covid-19 coordinator Dr Deborah Birx has claimed that Covid-19 could have leaked from a Wuhan lab where scientists were working on vaccines for similar viruses. She said, "Someone working in the lab with one of the strains could’ve caught it and not known they had it."
Speaking to DailyMail, the 66-year-old former Covid adviser said that "it came out of the box ready to infect" when it emerged within the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan in December 2020. She stressed the fact that most viruses generally take months or years to become highly infectious to humans. However, Covid "was already more infectious than flu when it first arrived," she added. "It happens, labs aren’t good, individuals aren’t good, we make errors and there will be contamination."
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'Asymptomatic spread cannot be contained'
Birx further said, “In laboratories you develop the virus in human cells, permitting it to adapt extra. Every time it passes by human cells it turns into extra tailored.” This results in individuals having a probability of contracting Covid asymptomatically, which means that the symptoms will not be visible. She argued, “Somebody working within the lab with one of many strains may’ve caught it and never recognized they’d it.”
The doctor also claimed that if China had admitted that the virus unfolded asymptomatically when it was first reported, many lives could have been saved. “China was implying that they were containing it, but asymptomatic spread cannot be contained without testing. I think the world lost several months of preparation because we were thinking there wasn’t that degree of human-to-human unfold when there clearly was,” she said.
Dr Birx's reaction to Trump's 'injection' comments
When the pandemic began in 2020, Birx along with Dr Anthony Fauci had been two of former president Trump’s most seen advisers. During one of the initial briefing sessions in the White House, Birx was caught on camera looking disappointed as Donald Trump spoke about the idea of using light rays as a treatment to fight coronavirus. A video of her reaction went viral making her a known face, with many inserting her expression to music from comedy shows. As reported by NBC, the reaction came when Trump said, "So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too. Sounds interesting."
U.S. #Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr Deborah Birx observes as the president muses over ultraviolet light and disinfectant virus treatment.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 24, 2020
Latest on #COVID19: https://t.co/RyuWiwUn0B pic.twitter.com/qe7rqCV4U6
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He continued, "And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. And is there a way we can do something like that. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors. But it sounds — it sounds interesting to me." Birx's uncomfortable reaction to Trump's words - which were widely ridiculed by the medical community - was the subject of several memes and viral GIFs.