IT’S A REAL WU DONE IT
Records suggest Fauci lied about virus funding
Anthony Fauci has denied that the US funded “gain of function” research at the Wuhan lab — manipulating viruses to make them more transmittable. But records obtained by The Intercept show such work was possible.
It’s getting hard to paper over the inaccuracies.
Critics have accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of lying after newly released documents appeared to contradict his claims that the National Institutes of Health did not fund gainof-function research at China’s Wuhan lab.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) led the criticism against Fauci on Tuesday as the damning documents, obtained by The Intercept, detailed grants given to EcoHealth Alliance — the nonprofit that funneled federal funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research.
Included in the trove of documents is a previously unpublished grant proposal that EcoHealth Alliance, which is run by Peter Daszak, filed with Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Fauci has repeatedly insisted that NIH funding of the Wuhan lab did not constitute “gain-of-function” research, which modifies the biological agent — and in the case of a virus could increase its transmissibility or virulence.
“Surprise surprise — Fauci lied again. And I was right about his agency funding novel Coronavirus research at Wuhan,” Paul tweeted after the documents were made public.
In a followup tweet later in the day, Rand said he was referring the issue to the Department of Justice.
“I have already asked the DOJ to review Fauci’s testimony for lying to Congress,” Rand wrote. “This report should make it abundantly clear that he needs to be held accountable.”
The grant proposal included in the documents was for a project titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence,” which involved screening thousands of bat samples, as well as people who worked with live animals, for novel coronaviruses, according to the report.
The $3.1 million grant was awarded for a five-year period between 2014 and 2019. After the funding was renewed in 2019, it was suspended by the Trump administration in April 2020.
The grant directed $599,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research. The proposal acknowledged the risks of such research, saying: “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 documents also include a second grant titled “Understanding Risk of Zoonotic Virus Emergence in Emerging Infectious Disease Hotspots of Southeast Asia,” which was awarded in August 2020. Under the terms and conditions of that grant approval, there is a section noting that prior to “further altering the mutant viruses,” the NIAID needs to be given a “detailed description of the proposed alterations and supporting evidence for the anticipated phenotypics characteristics of each virus.” Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, said the documents — obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request — show that Fauci had been “untruthful” about gain-of-function research. “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,” Ebright tweeted.
“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 20142017 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.”
Gary Ruskin, executive director of US Right To Know, told The Intercept that the documents provided a “road map to the high-risk research that could have led to the current pandemic.”
NIH funding of work at the Wuhan lab has come under increasing scrutiny amid the pandemic, with Republican senators, including Paul, as well as Tom Cotton of Arkansas, accusing Fauci of lying about whether US taxpayers’ money was used for gain-of-function research.