Former CDC director says he received death threats for supporting Wuhan lab leak theory

Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield said he received death threats for supporting the theory that the coronavirus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, an explanation that has gained popularity over the last few weeks.

Redfield's suspicions around the Wuhan Institute of Virology reportedly began stirring in early January 2020, when Chinese officials, specifically Dr. George Fu Gao, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control, contacted him about COVID-19 in the very beginning stages of its development, he told Vanity Fair in a report released Thursday. The health authority said he requested to send researchers to the lab to test workers for antibodies, but his pleas were ignored.