Released emails show Fauci signed off on WHO-sponsored statement approving China's response to COVID

The statement was sent out in late January before the worst of the pandemic.

Published: October 23, 2020 5:30pm

Updated: October 23, 2020 6:45pm

Emails obtained by Judicial Watch and the Daily Caller News Foundation via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit show that White House coronavirus adviser Anthony Fauci in late January approved of a World Health Organization-sponsored press release supporting China's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The email refers to the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, an independent advisory body created by WHO and the World Bank Group. It specifically notes "consensus for the GPMB to issue a statement supportive of countries’ (especially China) and WHO response efforts, and to call for urgent actions to further strengthen global preparedness and response to this outbreak."

"Looks fine," Fauci responded. "Please see my comments in attached document."

China, which claims to have suppressed the virus within its borders, instituted a severe lockdown of the Wuhan province at the outset of the pandemic, reportedly going so far as to lock citizens in their homes by welding their doors shut.