FDA chief says NIH 'brewed up a virus that killed 20 million people'

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary again promoted a conspiracy theory about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday, accusing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of funding the lab that created the virus.

Makary was asked by NewsNation's Connell McShane about the longevity of the Trump administration's changes to federal health agencies such as the FDA.

“We are planning to change our health agencies for a generation or longer,” Makary responded.

“Look at the NIH, when Jay Bhattacharya got in there it was a mess," referring to the former director of the medical research agency. "[Fourteen] percent of the grants were descriptive studies on health equity and the NIH had just funded a lab that brewed up a virus that killed 20 million people worldwide.