Kentucky Senator Rand Paul confronted Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former chief White House medical adviser and former director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), saying he should “take some responsibility for funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan,” while saying &#8220;what you’ve done is change the definition on your website to try to cover your a**.&#8221;
“I don’t expect you today to admit that you approved of NIH funding for gain-of-function research in Wuhan, but your repeated denials have worn thin and a majority of Americans frankly, don’t believe you,” Paul began. “Even the NIH now admits that EcoHealth Alliance (the non-profit that <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/09/09/covid-origins-gain-of-function-research/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collaborated</a> with the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the nearby Wuhan University Center for Animal Experiment) did perform experiments in Wuhan that created viruses not found in nature that actually did gain in lethality. The facts are clear: The NIH did fund gain-of-function research in Wuhan, despite your protestations.”
In September 2021, The Intercept <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/09/09/covid-origins-gain-of-function-research/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> evidence showing that the EcoHealth Alliance, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and the nearby Wuhan University Center for Animal Experiment had engaged in gain-of-function research “intentionally making viruses more pathogenic or transmissible in order to study them &#8230; grant money for the controversial experiment came from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is headed by Anthony Fauci.&#8221;
“Your persistent denials, though, are not simply a stain on your reputation, but are a clear and present danger to the country and to the world,” Paul stated.
Later in the confrontation, Paul asked, “Will you today, finally take some responsibility for funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan?”
“Senator, with all due respect, I disagree with so many of the things that you said. First of all, gain-of-function is a very nebulous term; we have spent, not us, but outside bodies, a considerable amount of effort to give a more precise definition to the type of research that is of concern that might lead to a dangerous situation. You are aware of that; that is called P3CO,” Fauci answered.
“We’re aware that you deleted gain-of-function from the NIH website,” Paul interjected.
“Well, I can get back to that in a moment if we have time, but let’s get back to the operating framework and guiderails of which we operate under,” Fauci deflected. “And you have ignored them. the guidelines are very, very clear: that you have to be dealing with a pathogen that clearly is shown and very likely to be highly transmissible in an uncontrollable way in humans and to have a high degree of morbidity and mortality and that you do experiments to enhance that, hence the word EPPP: enhanced pathogens potential pandemic.”
Paul pointed out that EcoHealth Alliance took a virus and combined it with WIV-1 to cause a “recombinant virus that doesn’t exist in nature,” adding, “and it made mice sicker — mice that had humanized cells — you’re saying that’s not gain-of-function research?”
“According to the framework and guidelines —” Fauci responded.
“So what you’re doing is defining away gain-of-function; you’re simply saying it doesn’t exist cause you changed the definition on the NIH website,” Paul accused. “This is terrible, and you’re completely trying to escape the idea that we should do something about trying to prevent a pandemic from leaking from a lab. The preponderance of evidence now points toward this coming from a lab, and what you’ve done is change the definition on your website to try to cover your a** basically. That’s what you’ve done; you’ve changed the website to have a new definition that doesn’t include the risky research that’s going on. Until you admit that it’s risky, we’re not gonna get anywhere. You have to admit that this research was risky. The NIH has now rebuked them. Your own agency has rebuked them. But the thing is you’re still unwilling to admit that they gained in function when they say that became sicker; they gained in lethality. It’s a new virus. That’s not gain-of-function?”
“According to the definition that’s currently operable &#8230; the current definition was done over a two to three-year period by outside bodies, including the NSABB, two conferences by the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine on December 2014, March 2016. We commissioned external risk-benefit assessment, and then on January of 2017, the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the White House issued the current policy,” Fauci said.
Paul then pointed out: “And coincidentally, the definition appeared on the same day that the NIH said that yes, there was a gain-of-function in Wuhan; the same day the definition appeared; the new definition to try to define away what’s going on in Wuhan. Until you accept it, we’re not going to get responsibility; we’re not going to get anywhere close to trying to prevent another lab leak of this dangerous sort of experiment.”
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US-POLITICS-CONGRESS-HOMELAND-SECURITY

Trying To ‘Cover Your A**’: Rand Paul Charges Fauci With Attempting To Change Definition Of Gain-Of-Function Research

Anthony Fauci

COVID-19

Rand Paul

Wuhan Institute of Virology

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) secretly escorted former chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci into its headquarters to &#8220;influence&#8221; the COVID-19 origins investigation, according to Republican lawmakers.
Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) said in a <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2023.09.26-SSCP-Letter-to-HHS-OIG-Re.-AF-Movements.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> addressed to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General Christi Grimm that according to new information gathered by lawmakers, Dr. Anthony Fauci, then-director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), played a role in the CIA&#8217;s review of the origins of COVID-19.
&#8220;The information provided suggests that Dr. Fauci was escorted into [CIA] Headquarters — without a record of entry — and participated in the analysis to &#8216;influence&#8217; the Agency&#8217;s review,&#8221; Wenstrup wrote. &#8220;Our goal is to ensure the scientific investigative process regarding the origins of COVID-19 was fair, impartial, and free of alternative influence.&#8221;
Fauci&#8217;s alleged visit to the George Bush Center for Intelligence headquarters in Langley, Virginia, did not have a date attached to Wenstrup&#8217;s letter, nor did the subcommittee Chairman disclose who provided the information to the panel.
Wenstrup requested Grimm make Special Agent Brett Rowland available for a voluntary transcribed interview and all documents and communications between federal agencies, including HHS, NIAID, and the U.S. Marshals Service.
&#8220;The American people deserve the truth — to know the origins of the virus and whether there was a concerted effort by public health authorities to suppress the lab leak theory for political or national security purposes,&#8221; Wenstrup wrote.
The allegations come after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cia-whistleblower-alleges-federal-agency-paid-covid-discovery-team-to-alter-wuhan-lab-findings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">whistleblower testimony</a> to the subcommittee claimed CIA officials paid six officers investigating the origins of COVID-19 to bury their conclusion that the virus likely originated from a Chinese lab.
Wenstrup and Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) wrote that an anonymous &#8220;highly credible senior-level CIA&#8221; official alleged that six members with &#8220;significant scientific expertise&#8221; in the federal agency tasked with investigating the roots of SARS-CoV-2 found that the virus likely originated in a Wuhan laboratory.
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&#8220;According to the whistleblower, at the end of its review, six of the seven members of the Team believed the intelligence and science were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China,&#8221; the representatives wrote.
But after the officers concluded their findings, the CIA whistleblower claims the intelligence agency offered financial incentives to six of the seven experts involved in the investigation to change their narrative on the virus, according to a letter sent to CIA Director William Burns.
&#8220;The seventh member of the Team, who also happened to be the most senior, was the lone officer to believe COVID-19 originated through zoonosis,&#8221; the letter continued. &#8220;The whistleblower further contends that to come to the eventual public determination of uncertainty, the other six members were given a significant monetary incentive to change their position.&#8221;
Questions about whether the virus leaked out of the Wuhan Institute of Virology or spread worldwide after the virus transmitted from animals to humans still divide U.S. agencies today.
The Department of Energy and the FBI were among the first federal agencies earlier this year to assess with moderate confidence that the pandemic&#8217;s origins were most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan.
But the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declassified a long-awaited report in June about potential links between the Chinese lab and the origins of COVID, which stated three lab workers who became ill in 2019 could not be directly linked to the source of the pandemic as their symptoms were &#8220;consistent with but not diagnostic of COVID-19.&#8221;
Fauci, who led the COVID-19 response team for the White House in the Trump and Biden administrations, remains at the center of a conspiracy about the virus&#8217;s origins. He has publicly dismissed the lab leak theory since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.
Earlier this year, the coronavirus subcommittee pressed Fauci about U.S. funding to the Wuhan lab after it reportedly emerged the NIH gave U.S.-based EcoHealth Alliance a $3.7 million grant in 2014, which approximately $600,000 went toward the Wuhan lab to study bat coronaviruses.
Fauci previously claimed the U.S. never spent money on virus research in a lab. But during an interview with <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/anthony-fauci-becoming-devil-and-warning-his-successor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Science</a> published on Monday, he appeared to have shifted his response about alleged funding for the specific gain-of-function research.
&#8220;I had no idea the grant to [EcoHealth and the Wuhan lab] existed until all this exploded,&#8221; Fauci said. &#8220;It&#8217;s $121,000-a-year grant, and I had a $6 billion portfolio.
&#8220;So, when I said to my people, &#8216;Tell me what&#8217;s going on,&#8217; they said. &#8216;This is the guidelines, and by no definition whatsoever is that gain-of-function of concern.&#8217; Now, people are saying maybe those guidelines are a little too loose. My feeling is, absolutely, you should reexamine that, and if you want to change it, change it.&#8221;

Health Chiefs Testify To Senate HELP Committee On Covid-19 Response

Fauci Secretly Met With CIA About COVID To ‘Influence’ Origins Investigation, House Subcommittee Says

Fauci Secretly Met With CIA About COVID To 'Influence' Origins Investigation, House Subcommittee Says

Pandemic

New York-based EcoHealth Alliance is being sued by the families of four people who contracted COVID and died, claiming the lab bears responsibility for the pandemic and their loved ones&#8217; deaths. 
The families allege that the health alliance, which <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-watchdog-slams-faucis-agency-and-ecohealth-over-deal-with-wuhan-lab" target="_blank" rel="noopener">previously received a U.S. grant</a> for bat virus research that partly funded studies at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, is responsible for “either intentionally or accidentally” releasing COVID, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month at Manhattan Supreme Court. The families are suing for unspecified damages. 
“If we had known the source or origin of this virus and had not been misled that it was from a pangolin in a wet market, and rather we knew that it was a genetically manipulated virus, and that the scientists involved were concealing that from our clients, the outcome could have been very different,” Patricia Finn, a lawyer for the families, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/08/12/covid-victims-families-sue-nyc-based-ecohealth-over-virus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The New York Post. 
The lawsuit alleges that EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak knew that the virus was being studied at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and that the organization knew it was “capable of causing a worldwide pandemic.”
“[The families of the deceased] are definitely in mourning, but moreover they’re enraged because the truth of what really happened appears to be coming forward,” Finn said. 
The suit was filed on behalf of deceased family members Mary Conroy, Emma D. Holley, Larry Carr, and Raul Osuna. 
Daszak and the EcoHealth Alliance have come under increasing scrutiny over their ties to Wuhan, where several government agencies <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/02/28/fbi-director-christopher-wray-wuhan-lab/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">believe</a> that COVID likely escaped from a lab. He had been part of the World Health Organization-China team that dismissed the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-investigation-concludes-covid-likely-originated-from-a-chinese-lab" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lab leak</a> hypothesis as “extremely unlikely.”
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The alliance worked on coronavirus research with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/science/bats-covid-lab-leak-nih.html">supported by millions of dollars in grants</a> from the National Institutes of Health. Last year the group denied claims by the NIH that it <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3154232/ecohealth-alliance-defends-us-funded-bat-coronavirus-research">failed to properly report its findings</a>.
Dr. Andrew Huff, a former vice president of the EcoHealth Alliance, believes that COVID was genetically engineered and leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He has pinned some of the blame on foreign groups working in China. 
“EcoHealth Alliance and foreign laboratories did not have the adequate control measures in place for ensuring proper biosafety, biosecurity, and risk management, ultimately resulting in the lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Huff wrote in a book published earlier this year.
Daniel Chaitin contributed to this report.

CHINA-HEALTH-VIRUS

EcoHealth Alliance Sued By Families Of COVID Victims Who Allege Group Was Responsible For Virus’ Release

Communist China

Courts

Lawsuit

U.S.

Come for Morning Wire’s Afternoon Update’s straight news, but stay for the Rapid Reactions The following five stories, and more, can be heard on today’s Morning Wire Afternoon Update podcast. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/biden-administration-appeal-twitter-threatens-legal-action-afternoon-update-7-6-23" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here to listen</a>. 
1. IRS Whistleblower&#8217;s Bombshell Allegations Update
On Wednesday, IRS Special Agent Joe Ziegler — the previously anonymous “Whistleblower X” — testified before Congress revealing his identity and providing detail into allegations of corruption at the IRS to protect the Biden family. Ziegler is a Democrat who worked as an IRS supervisory agent on the agency’s investigation into <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hunter-biden">Hunter Biden</a>’s tax affairs. He testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability:
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IRS Special Agent and whistleblower Joseph Ziegler: &quot;I am risking my career, my reputation, and my casework &#8230; No one should be above the law, regardless of your political affiliation.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/wH8H1FMhEx">pic.twitter.com/wH8H1FMhEx</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1681718788469805056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 19, 2023</a></blockquote>
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IRS WHISTLEBLOWER JOSEPH ZIEGLER:
&quot;There is NOTHING that indicates Hunter Biden will be required to amend his false tax return for 2018 — a false tax return that includes improper deductions for prostitutes, sex clubs, and his adult children&#39;s tuition.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/UNPMi5t0Sh">pic.twitter.com/UNPMi5t0Sh</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1681720603684872193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 19, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Rapid Reaction: This author will have more on this topic later, but for now, readers can enjoy a reaction from The Heritage Foundation&#8217;s Mike Howell, Project Oversight Director, sent to The Daily Wire via e-mail:
<blockquote>
HOWELL: The courageous IRS whistleblowers provided sworn testimony today confirming major political interference into the Hunter Biden investigation, which is set to culminate in a sweetheart plea deal next week.
This sort of activity, running a multimillion dollar international play to pay scheme involving the current President of the United States, is usually reserved for third world countries.  We are fighting this at Heritage in federal court and will be formally opposing the plea deal next week.  In that fight, we forced the DOJ to admit that it has over 2,500 pages of communications between Weiss’ office and DOJ or between Weiss office and other judicial districts about the Hunter Biden investigation.  That’s a substantial amount of coordination for a supposedly independent investigation. The Hill should subpoena and obtain that document set immediately.
Chairman Comer is to be commended for his dogged investigation and literally providing the receipts via bank records. The full weight of Congress should be behind achieving actual accountability, immediately. The goal here is the de-weaponization of government, not just exposure, and Congress’ efforts will be judged by that standard.
The Hill took a major step back when they let FBI Director Wray off the hook for contempt of Congress for his refusal to turn over a document alleging a criminal bribery scheme. The time has to come to re-engage forcefully and our hope is that the full Congress supports Chairman Comer in this effort.
</blockquote>
2. Wuhan Won&#8217;t Get Any More U.S. Taxpayer Funding
The Biden <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/us-formally-suspends-funding-to-wuhan-institute-of-virology" target="_blank" rel="noopener">administration has formally suspended</a> funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese research institute at the center of the COVID lab leak theory. The administration claims the institute does not comply with federal regulations. The Department of Health and Human Services informed the Wuhan Institute this week that the U.S. is cutting off funding — potentially permanently.
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The decision comes after a months-long review by HHS, which concluded that the institute — a leader in coronavirus research based in Wuhan, where the COVID-19 virus began — “is not compliant with federal regulations and is not presently responsible.” The decision to scrap funding came after the Wuhan Institute failed to provide documents related to concerns that it had violated the National Institutes of Health’s biosafety protocols.
Rapid Reaction: The truth is that a Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Inspector General report alleged that both NIH and EcoHealth Alliance — the organization that provided WIV with taxpayer money — were careless in their business dealings with the Chinese lab.
That alleged trail of negligence, it seems, has left numerous questions in its wake — particularly just how dangerous the research being conducted at WIV was and its relation to the COVID pandemic.
According to the <a href="https://oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region5/52100025.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IG document released</a> in January, NIH and EcoHealth Alliance had established monitoring procedures for WIV, yet both failed to comply with those measures. Given the potential danger of the experiments being conducted by these groups, irresponsibility raises major alarms, according to the government.
The reality is that we&#8217;ll likely never know what WIV was doing with COVID viruses just before the pandemic hit — though thoughtful observers can probably take a guess.
Read more <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/d-c-s-dirty-open-secret-about-that-chinese-government-controlled-lab-in-wuhan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
3. Media Will Be Allowed At <a href="https://fox17.com/news/local/camilo-campos-crime-alert-tennessee-willimson-county-judge-denies-media-restriction-in-case-of-franklin-soccer-coach-accused-of-rape" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Illegal Alien</a> And Alleged Rapist Soccer Coach Hearing
A Tennessee judge denied a motion on Tuesday to restrict media from a case involving a soccer coach accused of drugging and raping young boys. Police in Franklin, Tennessee, arrested Camilo Hurtado Campos earlier this month. According to police, a restaurant worker found Campos’ cell phone which contained a large number of disturbing pictures and videos of young boys being assaulted. Police have confirmed Campos entered the U.S. illegally and had resided in Franklin for more than 20 years. Lawmakers, like Senator Marsha Blackburn, want answers.
A hearing for Campos is slated for July 25.
Rapid Reaction: Campos should be the face of the U.S.&#8217; dangerous immigration policies. According to officials, Campos was in the country for more than twenty years. He embedded himself in Franklin, TN — <a href="https://www.bestplaces.net/voting/city/tennessee/franklin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a town that voted 62%  Republican in 2020</a> — and allegedly took advantage of children for years.
He never should have been in the country in the first place. America should <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/we-should-deport-pelosi-attacker-and-all-other-illegal-aliens" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deport</a> all illegal aliens.
4. Illegal Aliens Cause Alleged Machete Mayhem
In Waltham, Massachusetts, a machete fight led to the arrest of three illegal aliens. 
Authorities say that 27-year-old Osman Aguilar-Borrayo, 21-year-old Kevin Aguilar-Borrayo, and 19-year-old Bryan Aguilar-Borrayo, were arrested last Friday around 6:30 p.m. Osman was arrested for armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery on a pregnant woman, assault, and battery with a dangerous weapon and mayhem, <a href="https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/07/18/machete-fight-leads-to-ice-capture-of-3-illegal-immigrants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to The Boston Herald. His two younger brothers were arrested on mayhem charges. ICE says that all three illegally crossed the southern border and were given an immigration hearings court date but never appeared. Now they face deportation.
Rapid Reaction: Had the Aguilar-Borrayo brothers never engaged in an alleged machete fight last Friday night, then law enforcement officials might have never known that the three illegal aliens were living in Waltham, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/massachusetts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Massachusetts</a>, at all.
How many more men like the Aguilar-Borrayo brothers are out there? Well, it’s hard to say.
Millions have flooded the country in the past two and a half years alone. Deportations have been at <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/03/27/jim-jordan-ice-deportations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">low</a> for much of the Biden presidency.
In fact, the Biden administration has made it a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-immigration-deportation-a03ef5cc1b5468b396c0ff4688ff186d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">priority to only deport</a> “criminal” illegal aliens. So, rather than be proactive and deport all illegal aliens, authorities are advised to wait for illegal aliens to commit crimes before nabbing them. If those illegal aliens don’t get busted for committing crimes, then they’re virtually able to stay forever.
Read <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/no-bueno-machete-mayhem-leads-to-arrest-of-three-illegal-alien-brothers-ice-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more here.</a>
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Fauci, Wuhan Institute of Virology

Rapid Reactions: Government Corruption From D.C. To Wuhan

Congress

Heritage Foundation

Hunter Biden

Illegal Immigration

Morning Wire

Podcast

The Biden administration has formally suspended funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese research institute at the center of the COVID lab leak theory, saying the institute does not comply with federal regulations.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) informed the Wuhan Institute on Monday that the U.S. is cutting off funding, adding that the department is looking to stop funding permanently, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-18/us-suspends-wuhan-institute-funds-over-covid-stonewalling" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a memo first reported by Bloomberg News.
The decision comes after a months-long review by HHS, which concluded that the institute, a leader in coronavirus research based in Wuhan where the COVID-19 virus began, “is not compliant with federal regulations and is not presently responsible.”
An HHS spokesperson said the decision to scrap funding came after the Wuhan Institute failed to provide documents related to concerns that it had violated the National Institutes of Health&#8217;s (NIH) biosafety protocols.
Previously, the NIH <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/09/09/covid-origins-gain-of-function-research/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">helped</a> fund experiments at the Wuhan Institute that involved creating “chimeric” hybrids of SARS-related bat coronaviruses.
“This action aims to ensure that WIV does not receive another dollar of federal funding,” the HHS spokesperson <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/18/politics/biden-admin-suspends-wuhan-lab-funding/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement.
For months during the thick of the pandemic in 2020, the lab leak theory was mocked and dismissed as a conspiracy theory.
Scientists who authored an early, highly influential paper on the origins of COVID agreed to downplay the lab leak theory, &#8220;given the s*** show that would happen if anyone serious accused the Chinese of even accidental release,&#8221; one <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/scientists-agreed-to-downplay-chinese-lab-leak-theory-for-fear-of-s-show-messages-indicate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a private Slack message in February 2020.
“Yup, I totally agree that that’s a very reasonable conclusion. Although I hate when politics is injected into science – but its [sic] impossible not to, especially given the circumstances,” one of the paper&#8217;s other authors responded.
“We do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible,” the five prominent scientists later <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/01/19/covid-origin-nih-emails/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in their March 2020 paper titled “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2” that was published in the journal Nature Medicine.
Emails from early 2020 that came to light earlier this year show that Dr. Anthony Fauci and his team suspected all along that the virus may have been the result of a lab leak. Fauci was the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and served as a prominent member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in 2020.
At the end of January, Fauci had a call with one of the COVID origin paper&#8217;s authors, Kristian Anderson, that concerned him so much he suggested potentially notifying the FBI.
After that phone call, Fauci wrote in an email that a group of evolutionary biologists should get together to &#8220;examine carefully the data to determine if his concerns are validated.&#8221;
&#8220;He should do this very quickly and if everyone agrees with this concern, they should report it to the appropriate authorities. I would imagine that in the USA this would be the FBI and in the UK it would be MI5,&#8221; Fauci wrote.
&#8220;Some of the features (potentially) look engineered,&#8221; Anderson wrote in an email to Fauci that same evening.
“On a spectrum if 0 is nature and 100 is release — I am honestly at 50!” British medical researcher Jeremy Farrar later <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/01/19/covid-origin-nih-emails/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> on February 2 to Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, then the director of the NIH.
The scientists scrambled to look for a natural evolution explanation for COVID-19, but they struggled to find conclusive evidence.
“Our main work over the last couple of weeks has been focused on trying to disprove any type of lab theory, but we are at a crossroad where the scientific evidence isn’t conclusive enough to say that we have high confidence in any of the three main theories considered,” wrote Andersen. “As to publishing this document in a journal, I am currently not in favor of doing so.&#8221;
However, in March, they decided to move forward and publish the scientific paper that downplayed the lab leak theory.
The NIH begrudgingly released the unredacted emails earlier this year after more than a year of litigation involving Freedom Of Information Act requests from journalists.

U.S. Formally Suspends Funding To Wuhan Institute Of Virology

Biden Administration

China

COVID

Department of Health and Human Services

Health

Health Care

Wuhan

Sen. Rand Paul, reinvigorated by newly-released emails from 2020 showing Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted that scientists at Wuhan University were known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments, is <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12308421/Anthony-Fauci-accused-perjury-Former-White-House-doctor-LIED-oath-funding-gain-function-research-China-feared-started-Covid-pandemic-Republican-Senator-claims.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">calling</a> for Fauci to be investigated for lying to Congress.
The Kentucky Republican wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland last week, saying Fauci had committed perjury when he told a Senate committee in July 2021 that the National Institutes of Health “has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).” Fauci served as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984-2022; NIAID is one of the 27 Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The 2020 email from Fauci revolved around a call he shared with various scientists, including Francis Collins, (former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute), who were “concerned about the fact that upon viewing the sequences of several isolates of the nCoV, there were mutations in the virus that would be most unusual to have evolved naturally in the bats and that there was a suspicion that this mutation was inserted.”
This key passage immediately followed: &#8220;The suspicion was heightened by the fact that scientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments to determine the molecular mechanisms associated with bat viruses adapting to human infection, and the outbreak originated in Wuhan.&#8221;
In September 2021, Richard Ebright, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University and laboratory director at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/fauci-untruthful-congress-wuhan-lab-research-documents-show-gain-function-1627351" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told </a>Newsweek that documents released by The Intercept proved “unequivocally” that NIH grants were used to fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Paul pointed out that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined in June that the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Wuhan University did receive NIH funding.
Paul noted that the GAO report “noted that NIH funded the WIV’s project ‘Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence’ and included “genetic experiments to combine naturally occurring bat coronaviruses with SARS and MERS viruses, resulting in hybridized coronavirus strains. &#8230; GAO also found that NIH funded the Wuhan University’s collaboration with WIV on viral detection in the Yunnan province.”
The GAO <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-106119.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>, “Specifically, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provided $200,000 in grant funding to Wuhan University, the only selected Chinese entity to receive funding directly from a federal agency. &#8230; All three selected Chinese entities received first-tier subawards from award recipients or second-tier subawards from another subrecipient. Specifically, we identified seven subawards to the three entities: Wuhan University: Two subawards totaling $240,496 disbursed, WIV: Three subawards totaling $1,413,720 disbursed, and AMMS: Two subawards totaling $514,129 disbursed. &#8230; Funding was disbursed under five of the seven subawards to the selected entities in calendar years 2014 through 2021.”
Fauci told the Senate Committee in 2021 that “gain-of-function research was done entirely in the Wuhan Institute by Doctor Shi [Zhengli] and was funded by the NIH.”
Paul pointed out that a paper by Wuhan Institute of Virology scientists mentioned efforts to produce a “chimeric” coronavirus. Such a virus would have been altered by humans, definitionally making it “gain of function.”
Paul stated that the information “explicitly matches the definition of gain-of-function research,” while Fauci had said, “This paper was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain-of-function.”

Leading Health Officials Testify On Federal Government’s Response To Monkeypox Outbreak

Rand Paul Asks DOJ To Investigate Fauci For Allegedly Lying To Congress

Perjury

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/department-of-the-interior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of the Interior</a> worked with officials from a global non-profit linked to the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/wuhan-institute-of-virology" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wuhan Institute of Virology</a> in China on a key study of COVID and bats in the United States, according to a watchdog group. 
Protect the Public&#8217;s Trust, a government watchdog organization, <a href="https://protectpublicstrust.org/press-releases/interior-department-collaborated-with-ecohealth-alliance-on-covid-19-bat-study/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">obtained documents</a> showing that the Interior Department worked with officials from the EcoHealth Alliance, a controversial group linked to the lab in Wuhan, on a report on &#8220;the possibility that humans could give SARS-CoV-2 to bats and bats would in turn spread the infection back to humans.&#8221;
The EcoHealth Alliance <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-watchdog-slams-faucis-agency-and-ecohealth-over-deal-with-wuhan-lab" target="_blank" rel="noopener">previously took a U.S. grant</a> for bat virus research and paid part of it to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The group’s president, Peter Daszak, was part of the World Health Organization-China team that dismissed the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-investigation-concludes-covid-likely-originated-from-a-chinese-lab" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lab leak</a> hypothesis as “extremely unlikely.”
“EcoHealth’s track record doesn’t inspire confidence,” said Protect the Public’s Trust Director Michael Chamberlain. “And here we have another instance of the U.S. government relying on this group – and during a consequential phase of a pandemic. The scandal plagued organization tried – and for a while succeeded – to move investigators’ and media focus away from the Wuhan lab where it was closely involved in research.”
According to the watchdog, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service both worked <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2020/1060/ofr20201060.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on a report</a> on whether COVID could be spread between bats and humans with EcoHealth Alliance Vice President for Science and Outreach Jonathan Epstein and Vice President for Research Kevin Olival.  
“As we unearth more EHA ties to the federal government, the question is why the federal government has downplayed the organization’s apparent reporting violations and how the public can have any confidence that it is deserving of taxpayer funds,” Chamberlain added. 
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In response to the report, Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) said that federal funding of the EcoHealth Alliance needs to be audited. 
“It’s becoming clearer and clearer by the day just how involved the federal government was with funding EcoHealth Alliance leading up to and during the pandemic,” he <a href="https://thespectator.com/topic/department-interior-ecohealth-alliance-research-bats/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Spectator. “EcoHealth Alliance continues to be at the heart of the origins of the Covid pandemic, and I’ve called for stripping EHA of its federal funding and auditing the funds it received over the last decade. This revelation reinforces my position further.”
The watchdog’s report comes as increased scrutiny is being placed on the Wuhan lab, as some entities, including the FBI and the Department of Energy, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-director-wray-pandemic-originated-in-a-chinese-lab-classified-info-supports-assessment">believe</a> that it is likely that COVID emerged after a lab leak.

Interior Department Worked With Group Linked To Wuhan Lab On Key COVID Report: Watchdog

Department of Interior

World

A new Senate report conducted by two doctors and GOP staff concludes &#8220;the preponderance of circumstantial evidence supports an unintentional research-related incident&#8221; that led to the release of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The 300-page <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23782225-mwg-fdr-document-04-16-23-1">report</a>, titled &#8220;Muddy Waters,&#8221; was compiled after Republican Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and staff reviewed more than 50,000 documents. &#8220;This document was the product of a multi-disciplinary effort by medical, scientific, legal, political and general policy analysts to catalog open source (unclassified) information relevant to the respective theories,&#8221; the report says.
&#8220;This report concludes most likely this was two leaks,&#8221; Marshall told reporters. &#8220;The possibility of a lab leak in the September-October [2019] time frame, even as early as July or August, was followed by vaccine development in November 2019. And then another lab leak seems to be the most sensible explanation in this retrospective review.&#8221;
&#8220;The information contained in this Source Reference Document reflects 18 months of extensive research and accompanying analyses of these two plausible hypotheses,&#8221; the report says. &#8220;Experts have put forward two dominant theories on the origins of the virus. The first theory is that SARS-CoV-2 is the result of a natural zoonotic spillover. The second theory is that the virus infected humans as the result of a research-related incident. &#8230; Both hypotheses are plausible.&#8221;
The report examined claims that the virus emerged naturally, known as &#8220;zoonotic spillover.&#8221;
&#8220;The natural zoonotic spillover hypothesis is weakened by the absence of key epidemiological and genetic data from the Huanan Seafood Market. However, data required to support a natural zoonotic source is dependent on information provided by China, and that is incomplete or contradictory,&#8221; the report says.
“Epidemiological and genetic molecular analyses of the early published circulating Wuhan [COVID-19] strains supported the possibility of two spillover events two or more weeks apart,” the report says.
“This assessment was made based on minor genetic differences in early circulating strains suggesting that two lineages of the same virus may have emerged simultaneously and progressed on different paths or sequentially separated by some period of time. One lineage showing more mutations than the other implying it had been circulated longer than the other or had potentially passed through more individuals.”
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Then the report drops the hammer. &#8220;The preponderance of circumstantial evidence supports an unintentional research-related incident,&#8221; the report concludes.
The new report dovetails with what former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Robert Redfield said last month. The doctor&#8217;s testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic laid out a fascinating timetable.
&#8220;In September 2019, three things happened in that lab,&#8221; Redfield <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/release/covid-origins-hearing-wrap-up-facts-science-evidence-point-to-a-wuhan-lab-leak%EF%BF%BC/">said</a> in the hearing. &#8220;One, they deleted the sequences. That is highly irregular — researchers don&#8217;t usually like to do that. Second, they commanded the command and control at the lab from civilian control to military control. Highly unusual.&#8221;
&#8220;And the third thing they did, which I think is really telling, is they let a contractor redo the ventilation system in that laboratory. There is strong evidence there was a significant event in that laboratory in September 2019,&#8221; the doctor said.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

Coronavirus around blood cells

COVID Likely Leaked From Wuhan Lab: Senate GOP Report

So I was reading the transcript from former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield&#8217;s testimony from earlier this month before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (yes, this is what I do in my spare time).
And I gotta&#8217; say, I missed something kinda&#8217; big. The headlines that came that day from the ex-CDC Chief focused on Dr. Anthony Fauci, who Redfield said &#8220;sidelined&#8221; anyone who dared question him on the origin of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.
But the doctor also said something fascinating about the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, where scientists were reportedly doing gain-of-function work on coronaviruses — partly funded by U.S. taxpayers at the behest of Fauci.
&#8220;In September of 2019, three things happened in that lab,&#8221; Redfield said in the hearing. &#8220;One is they deleted the sequences. Was highly irregular. Researchers don&#8217;t usually like to do that. Second thing they did was they changed the command and control at the lab from the civilian control to the military control. Highly unusual — and I&#8217;ve been involved in dual-use labs when I was in the military.&#8221;
&#8220;And the third thing they did, which I think is really telling, is they let a contractor redo the ventilation system in that laboratory. So I think, clearly, there was strong evidence that there was a significant event that happened in that laboratory in September,&#8221; the doctor said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Dr. Robert Redfield, the former CDC Director, talks about three suspicious events that took place at the Wuhan lab in September 2019:
&quot;In Sept. 2019, three things happened in that lab. One is they deleted the sequences. Highly irregular, researchers don&#39;t like to do that. The… <a href="https://t.co/nIT5b96AbE">pic.twitter.com/nIT5b96AbE</a>
&mdash; kanekoa.substack.com (@KanekoaTheGreat) <a href="https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1633499775734788096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
That&#8217;s not at all what Fauci said. For years, the nation&#8217;s top immunologist asserted that the virus appeared naturally, mutating from animals to infect humans.
In April 2020, Fauci cited a study that found the virus’s mutations are “consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.”
“There was a study recently,” Fauci told reporters on April 17, 2020, when asked if it was possible that virus came from a Chinese lab, “where a group of highly qualified evolutionary virologists looked at the sequences … in bats as they evolve and the mutations that it took to get to the point where it is now is totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.
“So, the paper will be available. I don’t have the authors right now, but we can make it available to you,&#8221; Fauci said.
But then, earlier this month, emails revealed by House Republicans showed a completely different story.
The emails showed Fauci &#8220;prompted&#8221; that very study to disprove the theory that the virus leaked from the lab in Wuhan, China. In fact, he had final approval of the scientific paper he had commissioned.
That paper, entitled “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” was delivered to Fauci for final approval before it was published in Nature Medicine on February 17, 2020.
The paper &#8220;was written four days after Fauci, and his NIH boss Francis Collins, held a call with the four authors to discuss reports that COVID-19 may have leaked from the Wuhan lab and &#8216;may have been intentionally genetically manipulated,'&#8221; the Post wrote.
The House Oversight subcommittee examining COVID released emails earlier this month that show the paper’s co-author, Dr. Kristian Andersen, said Fauci &#8220;prompted&#8221; him to write the paper with the specific goal to “disprove” the lab-leak theory, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fauci-knew-new-emails-show-he-prompted-paper-to-shoot-down-wuhan-lab-leak-theory-of-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
During the House Select Subcommittee this month, Redfield also said Fauci actively sought to exclude or silence anyone who failed to embrace his chosen narrative. He claimed Fauci intentionally excluded him from conversations because he refused to fall in line.
“This was an a priori decision that there’s one point of view that we’re going to put out there, and anyone who doesn’t agree with it is going to be sidelined. And as I say, I was only the CDC director, and I was sidelined,” Redfield said.
Wait for the next shoe to fall. It all still doesn&#8217;t add up.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

Wuhan Lab

Ex-CDC Head Finally Says What We’ve All Known Forever About The Source Of COVID-19

Ex-CDC Head Finally Says What We've All Known Forever About The Source Of COVID-19

Robert Redfield

Suspicions have arisen that the U.S. government may have paid tens of millions of dollars in superfluous payments to labs in Wuhan, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/china">China</a>.
The payments were ostensibly made through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-government-agencies-may-have-been-double-billed-projects-wuhan-china-records-indicate-probe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a>.
“What I&#8217;ve found so far is evidence that points to double billing, potential theft of government funds. It is concerning, especially since it involves dangerous pathogens and risky research,” former federal investigator Diane Cutler, who examined 50,000 documents including U.S. government grants for high risk research in China.
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), who hired Cutler to investigate, wants to crerate a 9/11 type commission to ascertain what actually happened. “I think there&#8217;s 1.1 million reasons that American taxpayers should care,” he said. “You&#8217;ll have a plane [crash]. We want to find out why the plane crashes. We go to any lengths to do that. And the hope is we don&#8217;t have another plane crash for the same reason.”
Robert Redfield, the former director of the CDC, recently testified that the NIH, the State Department, USAID and the Defense Department funded high-risk virus research in Wuhan.
Redfiled was <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/03/08/6-takeaways-as-house-covid-19-panel-investigates-china-lab-leak/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asked</a> by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) about Dr. Anthony Fauci testifying in 2021 that there was no U.S. funding for gain-of-function research (gain-of-function is a process whereby a disease is is exacerbated in order to study its response) in China.
“Do you think that Dr. Fauci intentionally lied under oath to Sen. Paul when he vehemently denied NIH’s funding of gain-of-function research?” Malliotakis asked
 “I think there is no doubt NIH was funding gain-of-function research,” Redfield answered.
 “Is it likely American tax dollars funded the gain-of-function research that created this virus?” Malliotakis asked.
“I think it did, not only from the NIH but the State Department, from USAID, and from DOD,” Redfield replied.
In January, a <a href="https://oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region5/52100025.asp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stated, “NIH did not effectively monitor or take timely action to address” compliance problems involving the EcoHealth Alliance, which received a grant from the NIH and sent some of those funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
NIH granted nearly $600,000 to EcoHealth Alliance that then went to WIV. OIG <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/federal-watchdog-finds-problems-nih-oversight-grant-funding-bat-virus-research-china">recommended</a> that WIV be stopped from receiving NIH funding in the future.

US Paper Money Flying out of Man’s Hand

Suspicions Arise That Wuhan Labs Double-Billed U.S. Government For Research

Everything is in flux following a report that the U.S. Department of Energy has concluded that the virus that causes COVID likely leaked from a coronavirus lab in Wuhan, China.
Since then, there have been other unsettling reports that shine a spotlight on just who said what and when.
For instance, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s recently retired leading infectious disease expert, had long sought to sell the idea that the virus emerged naturally. Nearly three years ago, Fauci cited a study that found the virus’s mutations “consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.”
“There was a study recently,” Fauci told reporters on April 17, 2020, when asked if it was possible that virus came from a Chinese lab, “where a group of highly qualified evolutionary virologists looked at the sequences … in bats as they evolve and the mutations that it took to get to the point where it is now is totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.&#8221;
“So, the paper will be available. I don’t have the authors right now, but we can make it available to you,&#8221; Fauci said.
But new emails revealed by House Republicans show a completely different story. The emails indicate Fauci &#8220;prompted&#8221; that very study to disprove the theory that the virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan. In fact, he had final approval of the scientific paper he had commissioned, The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/03/05/new-emails-show-fauci-commissioned-paper-to-disprove-wuhan-lab-leak-theory/">reported</a>.
Enter Dr. Jeremy Farrer. Like Fauci, he &#8220;prompted&#8221; the scientific paper. Farrar was then the head of the British nonprofit, the Wellcome Trust, which has long ties to the pharmaceutical industry. On the day the paper was published, emails show Farrar pushed for an edit to the piece. &#8220;Sorry to micromanage/micro edit! But would you be willing to change one sentence?”
He wanted to change the word “unlikely” to “improbable” so a sentence would read: “It is improbable that SARS-CoV-2 emerged through laboratory manipulation of an existing SARS-related coronavirus.”
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Now, Farrar is about to become chief scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO). He is set to take the six-figure role in the second quarter of this year after stepping down as director of Wellcome.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a doctor, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11826847/Experts-call-lab-leak-denying-doctor-Jeremy-Farrar-sacked-World-Health-Organization.html">told</a> DailyMail.com that he opposes Farrar&#8217;s appointment.
&#8220;Jeremy Farrar, the guy who then publicly disdained the lab leak theory despite privately admitting he was still 50:50 on the lab leak should not be in charge of the WHO or any investigations into the origins of Covid,&#8221; Paul told the U.K. paper.
The Mail reported that emails leaked last year show Farrar privately expressed concern that COVID could have leaked from a lab in February 2020. &#8220;He famously told Dr. Anthony Fauci and colleagues that he was 50:50 between a lab leak and natural origin,&#8221; the paper said.
But just weeks later, Farrar signed his name to a letter in the Lancet medical publication denouncing the lab leak hypothesis as nothing more than a &#8220;conspiracy theory.&#8221;
Dr. David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia in the U.K., also told the Mail WHO should reconsider Farrar&#8217;s appointment.
&#8220;He first privately speculated on a lab leak origin for Covid. Yet, he then added his signature to a notorious Lancet letter seeking to debunk the lab leak theory. If he is to lead the WHO, it would be wise for Dr. Farrar to commission investigations of Covid&#8217;s origins entirely independent of the Organization&#8217;s hierarchy, himself included,&#8221; Livermore said.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

Dr. Fauci Testifies Before Senate Committee On Federal Response To COVID-19

Sen. Rand Paul Says COVID Lab Leak-Denying Doctor Should NOT Be WHO’s Top Scientist

 Sen. Rand Paul Says COVID Lab Leak-Denying Doctor Jeremy Farrar Should Be Fired From New Post As World Health Organization's Top Scientist

World Health Organization

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/department-of-energy">The U.S. Energy Department</a> reportedly concluded that the COVID virus likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China. Even though the agency said it was a &#8220;low confidence&#8221; conclusion, the pronouncement elevated the once-conspiracy theory and appeared to vindicate those who had at least questioned the virus&#8217;s origin.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s leading infectious disease expert, had long sought to sell the idea that the virus emerged naturally.
In April 2020, he cited a study that found the virus’s mutations are “consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.”
“There was a study recently,” Fauci told reporters on April 17, 2020, when asked if it was possible that virus came from a Chinese lab, “where a group of highly qualified evolutionary virologists looked at the sequences… in bats as they evolve and the mutations that it took to get to the point where it is now is totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.
“So, the paper will be available. I don’t have the authors right now, but we can make it available to you,&#8221; Fauci said.
But now, new emails revealed by House Republicans show a completely different story.
The emails show Fauci &#8220;prompted&#8221; that very study to disprove the theory that the virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China. In fact, he had final approval of the scientific paper he had commissioned, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/03/05/new-emails-show-fauci-commissioned-paper-to-disprove-wuhan-lab-leak-theory/">reported</a>.
That paper, entitled “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” was delivered to Fauci for final approval before it was published in Nature Medicine on February 17, 2020.
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The paper &#8220;was written four days after Fauci, and his NIH boss Francis Collins, held a call with the four authors to discuss reports that COVID-19 may have leaked from the Wuhan lab and &#8216;may have been intentionally genetically manipulated,'&#8221; the Post wrote.
The House Oversight subcommittee examining COVID released emails on Sunday that show the paper’s co-author, Dr. Kristian Andersen, said Fauci &#8220;prompted&#8221; him to write the paper with the specific goal to “disprove” the lab-leak theory.
&#8220;There has been a lot of speculation, fear-mongering, and conspiracies put forward in this space,&#8221; Andersen wrote on February 12, 2020, in a cover letter when submitting the paper to Nature Medicine. He said the paper was &#8220;prompted&#8221; by &#8220;Tony Fauci&#8221; and Jeremy Farrer.
Farrar was then the head of the British nonprofit, the Wellcome Trust, which has long ties to the pharmaceutical industry. On the day the paper was published, emails show Farrar pushed for an edit to the piece. &#8220;Sorry to micromanage/micro edit! But would you be willing to change one sentence?”
He wanted to change the word “unlikely” with “improbable” so a sentence would read: “It is improbable that SARS-CoV-2 emerged through laboratory manipulation of an existing SARS-related coronavirus.”
But that wasn&#8217;t the case at all. In a newly updated classified intelligence report, the Department of Energy assessed that the COVID virus &#8220;most likely&#8221; came from a laboratory leak in China, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/26/politics/covid-lab-leak-wuhan-china-intelligence/index.html">according</a> to CNN.
A senior US intelligence official <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-origin-china-lab-leak-807b7b0a">told</a> The Wall Street Journal that the update to the intelligence assessment &#8220;was conducted in light of new intelligence, further study of academic literature and in consultation with experts outside government.&#8221;
The issue is far from over.
“We need to do extensive hearings,&#8221; Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
&#8220;I hope our Democratic colleagues in the Congress can support that. I know the Republicans in the House are certainly supportive of that,” he said. &#8220;Think about what just happened over the last three years, one of the biggest pandemics in a century. A lot of evidence that it’s coming from the Chinese.&#8221;
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

Fauci Knew: New Emails Show He ‘Prompted’ Paper To Shoot Down Wuhan Lab Leak Theory Of COVID-19

Fauci Knew: New Emails Show He 'Prompted' Paper To Shoot Down Wuhan Lab Leak Theory Of COVID-19

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