Ex-director of U.S. CDC says the SARS-CoV-2 virus was "intentionally engineered"

The debate over the origin of the COVID-19 disease was reignited as Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States, said "there is a real possibility that the virus' birthplace was Chapel Hill."

In a 91-minute long interview with Dana Parish, a YouTube podcaster, on November 14, Redfield said that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which led to COVID-19, was "intentionally engineered as part of a bio-defense program."

When asked about the U.S. role in the virus' origin, Redfield replied, "I think it was substantial."

"One is they funded the research both from NIH (National Institutes of Health), the State Department, USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and the Defense Department. All four of those agencies helped fund this research," he explained.

"Secondly, 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. I think he probably helped create some of the original viral lines, but I can't prove that."

Redfield did note that he lacked definitive evidence to substantiate the claim.