Ex-Trump aide calls Fauci ‘father’ of Covid and suggests he helped China genetically engineer virus

A former aide of Donald Trump has blamed Dr Anthony Fauci for the pandemic, labelling Covid-19 as the “Fauci virus” and suggesting that the infectious disease expert was involved with China in genetically engineering the infection that has claimed millions of lives worldwide.

Peter Navarro, who served as a Trade Adviser in the White House under Donald Trump, appeared on Fox News on Tuesday where he launched a tirade against the chief medical advisor reacting to his interview on CNN.

“Fauci is the father of the actual virus. Fauci’s the guy,” said Mr Navarro.

“And basically, we had Fauci not only funding that lab with American taxpayer dollars. He authorised this thing called the gain of function research,” Mr Navarro said. “He allowed the Chinese Communist Party… to genetically engineer a virus.” 

Dr Fauci, who leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, has been attacked by several conservatives all through the pandemic who made similar claims of his involvement in the spreading of the disease. Covid-19 being a genetically engineered virus is also a popular conspiracy theory of the far-right, a claim for which there is no evidence.

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The theory made waves after Robert Redfield, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said if he “was to guess,” the virus likely originated in a lab in Wuhan. However, the World Health Organization investigators have called that theory “extremely unlikely.” 

“I call it the Fauci Virus now. If he wants to be the father of something, he’s the father of the virus that’s killed over half a million Americans,” Mr Navarro said.

He was speaking to Fox News anchor Rachel Campos-Duffy who did not interrupt or correct him in the show for this unsubstantiated claim.

Mr Navarro also called Dr Fauci a “sociopath” for speaking about the coronavirus vaccine as an achievement in his CNN interview. Dr Fauci had said: “The decision we made on January the 10th — to go all out and develop a vaccine — may have been the best decision that I’ve ever made with regard to an intervention as director of the institute.”

In response, Mr Navarro said: “Fauci is a sociopath and a liar. He had nothing to do with the vaccine. The father of the vaccine is Donald J Trump.”