Fact Check: Obama, Dr Fauci did not visit Wuhan lab in 2015
By Satya Priya BN Published on 18 July 2020 2:30 PM GMT
Hyderabad: Recently, a few pictures are going viral on the social media, claiming to show former American president Barack Obama, along with Melinda Gates, Dr. Anthony Fauci visiting Wuhan lab in 2015, relating it to Covid-19 pandemic.
While some shared the pictures with the claim 'This our very own Dr Fauci with Melinda Gates and President Barack Obama at the Wuhan Labs in 2015.'
Some went on to add 'The doctor and his Boss visit Wuhan in 2015, I'm no doctor but my common sense tells me this is highly suspicious'
Archived versions of the claims are here and here.
Fact check:
The claim that the picture shows Obama touring Wuhan Lab is FALSE.
When we performed reverse image search along with keywords "Obama tours lab", we found the same picture reported on https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/, with title "President Obama tours a lab at the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Health".
The description of the picture stated that Barack Obama, Health and Human Services secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell and Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, tour a lab at the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, Dec. 2, 2014. Dr. Nancy Sullivan, Senior Investigator, Chief Biodefense Research Section, explains the lab is investigating Ebola vaccine candidate currently being tested on humans.
We also found an article on Reuters which stated that "Obama toured a lab at the National Institute of Health, where a team of researchers last week published promising results from the first phase of a research trial for an Ebola vaccine."
According to these reports, along with Barack Obama and Dr. Fauci, the person in the picture was Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews and NOT Melinda Gates, as claimed in the viral messages.
The researcher Obama was speaking with, was identified as Dr. Nancy Sullivan who is now Chief of Biodefense Research Section, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Therefore, the pictures show Barack Obama touring Vaccine Research Center at National Institute of Health in Maryland, USA and NOT Wuhan lab in China. The claim is FALSE.
