A new batch of emails released by the House Oversight and Reform Committee makes clear that not only did medical researchers at the National Institutes of Health almost immediately suspect that the Wuhan lab in China was the most likely origin point for COVID-19, they also depict a politically motivated conspiracy to suppress the lab leak theory in favor of a natural origin narrative.

As far back as late January 2020, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci received an email from four virologists from the Scripps Research Institute. In the email, the four virologists indicated they had reviewed the SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence and concluded that it was “inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory.” The four virologists were unanimous in their opinion that the novel virus was not of natural origin but more likely a product that escaped a lab.

To be clear, in January 2020, virologists who had viewed the novel virus’s structural makeup had communicated to Dr. Fauci that a lab leak was the more probable explanation for COVID’s origin.

However, just days later, these same virologists had an apparent sudden change of heart. In an email dated February 4, 2020, Kristian Andersen, the lead virologist of the group, declared that theories maintaining that the virus may have leaked from a lab were “crackpot theories” that “relate to this virus being somehow engineered with intent and that is demonstrably not the case.” Then in March, Andersen and his fellow virologists published an article in the respected journal Nature Medicine in which they stated, “Our analysis clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.”

This article, along with a letter published in The Lancet signed by British research administrator Jeremy Farrar, effectively silenced dissenting opinions within the scientific community. So, the burning question is, what happened that changed these virologists’ opinion? The short answer appears to be politics.

According to Fox News, “Fauci hastily organized a call with dozens of worldwide virologists, and notes from the meeting … reveal that suspicions of the lab leak theory were suppressed over concerns of how the public would react to news of possible Chinese government involvement.” Francis Collins, then-director of the National Institutes of Health, asserted that “science and international harmony” were at stake should the Chinese government’s involvement become the focus. During this meeting it was then agreed that the lab leak theory should not be posited as it would add “fuel to the conspiracists.” Furthermore, Collins insisted that natural origin was “more likely.”

It now appears that Fauci and Collins conspired to suppress the lab leak theory, likely due to an overriding desire to be deferential to China. After all, the NIH was funding via EcoHealth Alliance gain-of-function research in Wuhan, and both Fauci and Collins happened to be defenders of the controversial research.