Fauci says the Chinese government is 'probably' hiding something about the origins of COVID, but he's not sure it's a lab leak

Anthony Fauci wishes he had more information from the Chinese government about how the coronaviruses came to be in China.

For a long time, scientists and conspiracy theorists have been looking for answers to the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. There is no satisfactory nail-in-the-coffin evidence that points to a single bulletproof explanation for where this epidemic started.

Did the virus emerge naturally in a bat or some other animal host, then hop from animals into people in a spillover event? Many scientists think that's possible. It might have leaked out of a lab. It is also possible but less likely.

Fauci told Ross Andersen that the evidence supports a natural occurrence.

Fauci says the Chinese government could 'clear this up' if they really wanted to

Fauci was asked if the Chinese government could clear this up once and for all.

Fauci agreed.

The doctor was careful to note that he was only referring to Chinese authorities stonewalling, and not average Chinese citizens, nor his scientific colleagues in China.

Fauci said that the Chinese government will be secretive about things that look like they're coming out of China. They are going to get blamed for something because of this.

In the early 2000s, the same style of secretive cover-up took place, even though "everyone agrees" that the bat-borne disease was the cause. Fauci remembers how hard it was to get information from Chinese officials.

The way the leadership of the society is, they were reticent to be open and honest.

Advisers to the National Institute of Health, where Fauci works, met this week to discuss stricter oversight of lab experiments.

Hiding information creates a perfect breeding ground for conspiracy theories, Fauci said

It's natural for people who think it's a conspiracy to say,'see? they're hiding something.'

Fauci said it might not have anything to do with a lab leak.

NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images

There were clusters of illnesses that made news late last year at the wet market in the city of Wuhan.

It would have been helpful for investigators to have access to those markets early on in the process of figuring out where and how the epidemic started.

Fauci said that banned animals were brought to the market because they brought in a lot of money. You want them to come clean on that.

We would get a lot more information if we were able to do it in China.