Dr. Anthony Fauci emerges from home, keeps quiet after latest COVID lab leak report

What’s up, doc?

Former White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci emerged from his home Monday, one day after a bombshell report revealed that the Energy Department has concluded that COVID-19 likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China.

Fauci, who retired after more than five decades as a federal employee at the end of 2022, didn’t make any comments about the revised assessment by the Department of Energy, which reportedly was included in a recent intelligence report sent to the White House and top-ranking members of Congress.

The 82-year-old has repeatedly dismissed the so-called “lab leak” theory — insisting that evidence shows that the virus passed naturally from animals to humans.

Republicans have argued that Fauci has rejected the theory to cover up his former agency’s involvement in funding so-called “gain-of-function” research, in which scientists make viruses more transmissible and harmful.

The Biden administration defended Fauci Monday, with press secretary Karine-Jean-Pierre saying the attacks by Republicans “have been counterproductive, they have not been helpful.”

This is a developing story.