White House Press Secretary packed up her stuff and high-tailed it out of a press conference on Wednesday, when a reporter decided it was high time to ask her about the most pressing question of the day: What is going to happen to Dr. Anthony Fauci, now that it is irrefutable that he lied? Watch:
“The story about Dr. Fauci yesterday in The Intercept, documents released that show he was untruthful…”
The door closing behind Psaki and her entourage would be her answer. That is to say, no answer.
Newly released documents from The Intercept reveal in depth how the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, headed by none other than Dr. Anthony Fauci, funding the U.S.-based non-profit EcoHealth Alliance performing “high-risk” research with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
The grant-funding documents were obtained by The Intercept in connection to its lawsuit against the National Institute of Health. It encompasses more than nine hundred previously unpublished pages of documents on EcoHealth Alliance.
“This is a roadmap to the high-risk research that could have led to the current pandemic,” said Gary Ruskin, executive director of U.S. Right To Know, which has been investigating the origins of Covid-19.
“The bat coronavirus grant provided the EcoHealth Alliance with a total of $3.1 million, including $599,000 that the Wuhan Institute of Virology used in part to identify and alter bat coronaviruses likely to infect humans,” The Intercept reports. “Even before the pandemic, many scientists were concerned about the potential dangers associated with such experiments. The grant proposal acknowledges some of those dangers: ‘Fieldwork involves the highest risk of exposure to SARS or other CoVs, while working in caves with high bat density overhead and the potential for fecal dust to be inhaled’.”
“The grant was initially awarded for a five-year period — from 2014 to 2019. Funding was renewed in 2019 but suspended by the Trump administration in April 2020,” The Intercept notes.
Although The Intercept’s report itself is sparse detailing the contents of the documents, they provide a clearer picture of the kind of research being conducted by EcoHealth Alliance, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and even the Wuhan University Center for Animal Experiment, which now becomes another potential source of a lab leak for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The grant proposals and reporting contained in the documents show how cozy Dr. Peter Daszak’s group was with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The documents also clearly bear the fingerprints of NIAID, which Dr. Fauci leads.
“The Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has an high interest in working with Eco Health Alliance and its scientists to identify and prevent the transmission of bat coronaviruses to human populations globally,” Dr. Yanyi Wang, Director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology writes to Dr. Peter Daszak. “In particular, the NIAID funded R01 renewal proposal entitled ‘Understanding the risk of bat coronavirus emergence‘ will provide an excellent opportunity to achieve these goals.”
The newly released EcoHealth Alliance documents shine an even brighter spotlight on Dr. Fauci, who has made heated denials about NIAID’s funding being utilized at the Wuhan laboratory, and specifically, for risky “gain-of-function” research.
Before Congress, Dr. Fauci got into a charged confrontation with Dr. Rand Paul over the matter of gain-of-function funding.
“If anybody is lying here, Senator, it is you.”
— Dr. Fauci to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). pic.twitter.com/mrEQTCHgRN
— The Recount (@therecount) July 20, 2021
Dr. Richard Ebright, Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University, lays out how the new documents show that Dr. Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins have been “untruthful” about funding gain-of-function research.
The materials show that the 2014 and 2019 NIH grants to EcoHealth with subcontracts to WIV funded gain-of-function research as defined in federal policies in effect in 2014-2017 and potential pandemic pathogen enhancement as defined in federal policies in effect in 2017-present. (This had been evident previously from published research papers that credited the 2014 grant and from the publicly available summary of the 2019 grant. But this now can be stated definitively from progress reports of the 2014 grant and the full proposal of the 2017 grant.)
The materials confirm the grants supported the construction–in Wuhan–of novel chimeric SARS-related coronaviruses that combined a spike gene from one coronavirus with genetic information from another coronavirus, and confirmed the resulting viruses could infect human cells. The materials reveal that the resulting novel, laboratory-generated SARS-related coronaviruses also could infect mice engineered to display human receptors on cells (“humanized mice”). The materials further reveal for the first time that one of the resulting novel, laboratory-generated SARS-related coronaviruses–one not been previously disclosed publicly–was more pathogenic to humanized mice than the starting virus from which it was constructed
…and thus not only was reasonably anticipated to exhibit enhanced pathogenicity, but, indeed, was demonstrated to exhibit enhanced pathogenicity.The materials further reveal that the the grants also supported the construction–in Wuhan–of novel chimeric MERS-related coronaviruses that combined spike genes from one MERS-related coronavirus with genetic information from another MERS-related coronavirus. The documents make it clear that assertions by the NIH Director, Francis Collins, and the NIAID Director, Anthony Fauci, that the NIH did not support gain-of-function research or potential pandemic pathogen enhancement at WIV are untruthful.
When asked if the documents show if Dr. Rand Paul was “right,” Dr. Ebright replied: “On this question, yes.”
It is now proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Dr. Fauci misled Congress about funding the Wuhan laboratory’s risky experiments on coronaviruses. Whether or not he is forced to resign, he should not longer have the trust of the American people.
NOW READ:
Newly Released 900 Pages in Docs Show Rand Paul Was Right: Fauci Lied About Wuhan-Lab Funding
"*" indicates required fields
OPINION: This article contains commentary which reflects the author's opinion.