Former CDC Director Robert Redfield Says Coronavirus Origin Was a Laboratory

Origin of covid-19 could be in frozen products 1:57

(CNN) -

Despite the lack of clear evidence, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Robert Redfield, said in a Clip from a CNN documentary released this Friday that believes the new coronavirus began spreading in the fall of 2019 and that the virus may have originated in a laboratory in China.

Speaking with CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, during an interview for the documentary "Covid War: Pandemic Doctors Speak Up," Redfield suggests that coronavirus cases began to spread before the pandemic timeline. , and indicates his belief in an unproven and politically charged theory about how the coronavirus emerged.

"If I had to guess, this virus started spreading sometime in September, October, in Wuhan," Redfield told Gupta in a clip that aired on Friday on

CNN New Day.

“Those are my own feelings.

And just opinion.

Now I can have opinions.

Redfield, a virologist who led the CDC under former President Donald Trump, said he believes the virus originated within a laboratory in China and "escaped," not necessarily intentionally.

• Scientists respond to rumors of the origin of the coronavirus: "Conspiracy theories only create fear"

This is what the WHO found in the Wuhan market (February 2021) 2:19

The origin of the new coronavirus, still under investigation

There is no clear evidence to support the "lab leak" theory, although it has played a continuing role in conspiracies and speculation, including statements by Trump.

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“You know, I'm from the viewpoint that I still believe that the most likely ideology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory.

You know, he escaped.

Other people don't believe that.

It's fine.

Science will eventually figure it out, "Redfield told Gupta, noting that" that does not imply any intentionality.

“I don't think this somehow came from a bat to a human.

And at that point in time, the virus reached the human being, it became one of the most infectious viruses that we know of in humanity for human-to-human transmission.

“Normally, when a pathogen passes from an animal to a human, it takes a while for it to figure out how to become increasingly efficient at human-to-human transmission.

I just don't think this makes biological sense. "

• Bats are the source of many viruses and could be the origin of the Wuhan coronavirus, experts say

Archive image.

Then-CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield speaks at a COVID-19 briefing at the White House on April 8, 2020. (Credit: MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP via Getty Images)

A World Health Organization team exploring the origins of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China is expected to release a report of its findings soon, but has already said that a laboratory-related incident is "extremely unlikely."

The most likely causes of transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19 to humans, the WHO team said, are introduction through an intermediate host species or transmission through trade in frozen products.

He has also investigated directional transmission from an animal reservoir to the human.

Meanwhile, Chinese officials and state media have promoted an unsubstantiated theory, called "multiple origin," which suggests that the pandemic may have started in various parts of the world, including in a US military laboratory.

WuhanCovid-19 coronavirus