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Former CDC director claims coronavirus may have started in a North Carolina research lab

PRE News & Ideas | By Annette Weston
Published November 21, 2024 at 9:55 AM EST
On the 3rd Opinion podcast, hosted by Dana Parish, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the Trump administration Robert Redfield claimed that the virus was engineered as part of a biodefense program, and that the U.S. Government played a large role in creating the virus that would become a global pandemic – and specifically named a University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill epidemiological researcher
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On the 3rd Opinion podcast, hosted by Dana Parish, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the Trump administration Robert Redfield (pictured) claimed that the virus was engineered as part of a biodefense program, and that the U.S. Government played a large role in creating the virus that would become a global pandemic – and specifically named a University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill epidemiological researcher.

A former Trump administration official said on a podcast last week that he believes COVID-19 was engineered as part of a bio-defense program and that it may have been created at a North Carolina lab.

Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the Trump administration, was a guest on 3rd Opinion, hosted by Dana Parish.

During the 90-minute interview posted on Parish’s X feed, he claimed that the U.S. Government played a large role in creating the virus that would become a global pandemic.

"NIH, the State Department, USAID, and the Defense Department," he said, "All four of those agencies helped fund this research.”

And Redfield specifically named a University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill epidemiological researcher.

“The scientific mastermind behind this research is a guy named Ralph Baric at the University of North Carolina, and he was very involved in this research," he said, "I think he probably helped create some of the original viral lines, but I can't prove that. But he was very involved.”

According to the university's website, Baric is a world leader in the study of coronaviruses and for 30 years has warned that the emerging coronaviruses were an ongoing global health threat, particularly because they can jump quickly from animals to humans and they tend to spread rapidly.

PRE reached out to Baric for comment but didn’t receive a response.

Copyright 2024 PRE News & Ideas

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Annette Weston
Annette is originally a Midwest gal, born and raised in Michigan, but with career stops in many surrounding states, the Pacific Northwest, and various parts of the southeast. An award-winning journalist and mother of four, Annette moved to eastern North Carolina in 2019 to be closer to family – in particular, her two young grandchildren. It’s possible that a -27 day with a -68 windchill in Minnesota may have also played a role in that decision. In her spare time, Annette does a lot of kiddo cuddling, reading, and producing the coolest Halloween costumes anyone has ever seen. She has also worked as a diversity and inclusion facilitator serving school districts and large corporations. It’s the people that make this beautiful area special, and she wants to share those stories that touch the hearts of others. If you have a story idea to share, please reach out by email to westona@cravencc.edu.
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