Stanford microbiologist David Relman describes Senator Rand Paul's July 29 hearing with Anthony Fauci as a painful spectacle that failed to advance understanding of Covid-19's origins, six years after the outbreak began in Wuhan.
Relman notes both a natural spillover and a lab accident remain viable, evidence-free theories: the virus has never been found in nature or in a lab, though NIH-supported research on bat coronaviruses was conducted in Wuhan under what he calls inadequate biosafety conditions.
He argues Paul is correct that risky NIH-funded work happened, and Fauci is correct that the published research doesn't reveal a plausible Covid precursor — leaving him to conclude a lab accident is the most plausible explanation, while stressing he could be wrong, and that a proper international forensic investigation still hasn't happened.
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