The director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauchi, rejected the theory that the new coronavirus was created in a Chinese laboratory, which contradicts statements by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what's out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated … Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species,” Fauci said in an exclusive interview to the National Geographic.

Based on the scientific evidence, he also doesn’t entertain an alternate theory—that someone found the coronavirus in the wild, brought it to a lab, and then it accidentally escaped.

Statements by an American expert on infectious diseases contradict Trump’s comments on April 30 about convincing evidence that a deadly mistake arose at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that there is 'enormous evidence' that the coronavirus came from the Chinese Wuhan lab.

Fauci, in turn, noted that he is most concerned that in the fall and winter in the US there may be a second wave of the disease if the spread of the virus does not slow down in the near future.

“I don't think there's a chance that this virus is just going to disappear,” he says. “It's going to be around, and if given the opportunity, it will resurge.” 

At the same time, he noted that he is optimistic about the possibility of creating a vaccine in record time.