President Joe Biden's former Covid adviser has admitted the pandemic may have stemmed from a laboratory leak in Wuhan.
Speaking at a health conference in New York City this week, Dr. Raj Panjabi, former special assistant to the president, described the lab leak theory as “plausible” and called on governments around the world to “do more to keep labs safe .'
Biden called former President Donald Trump “downright xenophobic” in May 2020 for suggesting that Covid was the result of failed Chinese experiments.
But now the FBI, the Department of Energy and many scientists and US government officials believe it is the most likely cause of the pandemic.
However, the official line from the Biden White House is that the origins of Covid remain uncertain – a view echoed by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who said there is “no definitive answer” to the question.
President Joe Biden's former Covid adviser has admitted the pandemic may have stemmed from a laboratory leak in Wuhan
But ex-Covid adviser Dr Panjabi appeared to deviate from the party line this week, saying: 'It is likely that Covid has its origins in a laboratory accident in Wuhan… we need to do more to keep laboratories safe.'
He also made a chilling prediction: There is a 50/50 chance that another pandemic will occur in 2050.
“The risk of a pandemic is only increasing in the modern world,” Dr. Punjabi said in a speech at the Forbes Healthcare Summit 2023 earlier this week.
'There is a 50 percent risk that this will happen in the next 25 years. This is due to globalization, or what I call the three P's.
'These are: pathogens (when diseases jump from animals to humans)… airplanes (worldwide travel) and poor public health systems that are broken and lacking investment.'
Dr. Panjabi worked for the Biden administration from 2021 to the end of 2023, advising on their response to Covid and future pandemic threats such as monkeypox
Dr. Panjabi is a doctor specialized in infectious diseases and epidemiology. He has also been named by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Panjabi worked for the Biden administration from 2021 to the end of 2023 and played a key role in two public health crises: the Covid-19 pandemic and the monkeypox outbreak that began in the spring of 2022.
He also led the White House strategy to boost Covid vaccine uptake in the US and abroad – a program that saw 1.1 billion shots distributed to Third World countries.
Safety practices in U.S. science labs are receiving increasing attention from government officials in an effort to prevent future pandemics.
Congress is currently considering stricter regulation of laboratories, with the House Energy and Commerce Committee currently holding hearings on the subject.
Pictured: the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where crucial data was erased by Chinese scientists
In September, Republicans escalated their investigation into the origins of Covid, demanding that the Biden administration and other politicians comply with their requests — or face subpoenas.
In a letter to HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra first obtained by DailyMail.com, Republicans wrote that they “expect full and timely compliance” with their requests, which have gone unanswered since they launched the investigation in February.
And Dr. Anthony Fauci has finally agreed to testify before Congress about his involvement in publicly covering up the origins of Covid.
The former White House doctor will be questioned about his former department's funding of dangerous experiments in Wuhan, as well as the stark difference between his public and private comments on the lab leak theory.
He will speak before the House of Representatives in January, which will be the first time he has testified under oath since his infamous showdown before the Senate in July 2021.
Shi Zhengli – nicknamed the 'Bat Lady' or 'Bat Woman' for her work on bat coronaviruses – works at the Wuhan Institute of Virology
The Covid lab leak theory was dismissed as a conspiracy by leading figures, including Dr. Fauci, in the early days of the pandemic.
Dr. Panjabi is just the latest senior official to lend credence to the lab leak theory, after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former top health official Dr. Robert Kadlec and former national security director John Ratcliffe all spoke out in favor of it.
Speaking to Sky News last month, Dr. Ratcliffe: 'It's more than just a possibility, it's certainly a probability and probably a certainty.'
Dr. Rober Kadlec, who initially worked with Dr. Fauci to silence the lab leak theory, has suggested in a report that Covid likely escaped during scientist Dr. Zhou Yusen's work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
He filed for a patent for a Covid vaccine in February 2020, indicating he had been working on it for months.
Numerous reports have exposed lax practices in US laboratories, including a military research facility Fort Detrik in Maryland.
The lab is accused of leaking Ebola and Anthrax into the local water supply in May 2018, after a tank of laboratory wastewater became overpressurized and sprayed infectious waste for three hours.
There are also suggestions that pandemics have been caused by laboratory leaks before, including the 2004 and 2005 flu outbreak.
Researchers said the strain that caused the disease bore a remarkable similarity to a strain that had spread decades earlier.
Dr. Martin Hirsch, a virologist in Massachusetts who previously worked in top-level virus research laboratories, told DailyMail.com: 'It is extremely important that we maintain strict safety procedures in the BSL-3 and BSL-4 laboratories.
'Scientists should also not be arrogant about what they work with and how they work with it.
'I strongly believe that laboratories should be closely monitored.
'Their experiments should not be carried out unless there is a very good reason for it and they are carried out under very strict containment procedures.'