Donald Trump Says COVID a 'Terrible Accident' That Breaks Loose From Wuhan Lab

Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he believes that the COVID pandemic resulted from a "terrible accident" that escaped from a Wuhan lab.

According to Fox News, Donald Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he was fairly certain that COVID was an accident from Wuhan lab.

"I believe it was a terrible accident... I believe it came from the lab... I really hope, and I believe... it was incompetence," Trump said.

He noted that some people do not necessarily agree with such claims. However, Trump said that we have to find out more about it and why did it happen.

Hannity pushed on and asked Trump about the possibility that U.S. tax dollars paid for "that gain of function research" being done in the Wuhan virology lab, where the coronavirus possibly leaked.

Donald Trump then prided his administration's efforts to stop the U.S. funding for gain-of-function research that "started under the Obama administration" and credited the travel restrictions he imposed on China at the beginning of the pandemic.

The former president was one of the first people to suggest that a lab leak might have been the source of the COVID pandemic. Some experts are saying it might be possible or even likely, including the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Some Experts Deny Wuhan Lab Leak Theory to Avoid Being Associated With Donald Trump

Some scientists denied the possibility of a lab leak virus origin because they were afraid of being associated with Trump and becoming a "tool for racists," The Blaze reported.

One of these experts is Alina Chan. She is a postdoctoral associate at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University.

Chan was among 18 experts who signed a letter in May demanding that the Wuhan lab leak theory be investigated thoroughly. Chan said the theory is more like breadcrumbs everywhere, and they are not always leading in one direction.

According to NBC News, the letter helped jumpstart a new round of calls to investigate the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis, which included demands from President Joe Biden and other leading scientists.

Chan said that during the Trump administration, some scientists did not want to publicly call for an investigation into lab origins because it was scarier to be associated with Donald Trump and become a tool for racists.

Maciej Boni, an associate professor of biology at Penn State University, said there had been no new evidence over the past 16 months that the coronavirus originated from a lab. Boni specializes in tropical disease epidemiology and viral evolution.

Shi Zhengli, a top Chinese virologist, had denied accusations and found herself defending the reputation of her lab in Wuhan. Shi said speculations about the coronavirus coming from her lab in Wuhan were baseless, The New York Times reported.

Research on SARS coronaviruses was underway at the Wuhan lab before the COVID spreads, which lead some people to believe that a test or experiment may have gone wrong.

The lab leak possibility was deemed a conspiracy theory before, but new calls for a more thorough probe had put it in the spotlight again.

Senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi urged the United States to respect facts and sciences and stop politicizing the issue, ABC Net reported.

WATCH: Donald Trump Issues Statement On COVID Origin Probe: "Everyone Agrees I Was Right On Wuhan Lab Leak" - From Republic World