Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday called for the United States to stop funding gain-of-function research at biolabs around the world.
Gabbard made the comments during an interview with podcast host Megyn Kelly, as they discussed the likelihood that the United States directly funded the research that led to the creation of COVID-19 and the state of the ongoing probe into the lab leak that released the virus. It is now widely accepted by American officials that a lab leak stemming from gain-of-function research triggered the 2020 pandemic.
“The reason why this is so important is not just what has happened in the past, it&#8217;s because this gain-of-function is happening in biolabs around the world,” Gabbard <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMKTSYxto_Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, pointing to her previous warnings about U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine.
“In order to prevent another COVID-like pandemic or another major health incident that could effect us in the world, we have to end this gain-of-function research and provide the evidence that shows exactly why and how it’s in our best interests, the American people’s best interest, to bring an end to it,” she added.
Gain-of-function research is a process in which scientists genetically alter an organism to study how it responds under specific conditions. It can involve increasing transmissibility, virulence, and other characteristics of a pathogen.
Gabbard did not specifically name which American-funded labs she said were performing gain-of-function research.
Gabbard told Kelly that she still had an intelligence team working with National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya and Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to investigate direct links between U.S.-funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, and the pandemic.
Kelly asked when the public could expect to find out the &#8220;exact experiment&#8221; that led to COVID. Gabbard replied that her team was working on it with Bhattacharya and would release the information &#8220;hopefully very soon.&#8221;
Based on the increasing consensus that the lab leak was the cause, Gabbard said she was not surprised that Dr. Anthony Fauci had been pardoned preemptively as President Joe Biden left office. “Is it any wonder that he sought a preemptive pardon for anything during a certain period of time by President Biden before he left office?” she said.
In May 2021, Fauci <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/20/if-anybody-is-lying-here-senator-it-is-you-fauci-tells-sen-paul-in-heated-exchange-at-senate-hearing.html">said</a> that the NIH “has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.” However, later evidence from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic determined that the EcoHealth Alliance used NIH dollars to fund gain-of-function research in Wuhan. EcoHealth is currently under investigation by the Justice Department and has been barred from receiving any further federal grant dollars.
Gabbard said that much of the research her team has conducted can be found at <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/lab-leak-true-origins-of-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID.gov</a>, where the Trump administration has compiled a page explaining how the coronavirus is believed to have originated in a Chinese lab.
In addition to the COVID investigation, Gabbard said that her team was looking at other instances of the United States funding &#8220;dangerous&#8221; gain-of-function research that &#8220;in many examples has resulted in either a pandemic or some other major health crisis.”

President Trump Presides Over Cabinet Meeting

Tulsi Gabbard Reveals When Her Team Will Pinpoint Exact Moment Of COVID Lab Leak

Anthony Fauci

Communist China

COVID

Health

Medical Research

Megyn Kelly

Tulsi Gabbard

World

Wuhan Institute of Virology

The Biden administration reportedly hid a 2022 report from the Defense Department that stated seven military members might have contracted COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, as early as October 2019.
The <a href="https://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2019-World-Military-Games-Report-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">December 2022 report</a> from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness examined “the number of United States athletes and staff who attended the 2019 World Military Games and became ill with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-like symptoms during or shortly after their return to the United States.”
It added, “The Department of Defense (DoD) has concluded through correspondence with the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and United States of America Medical Director in charge of the safety and health of the participants in the 2019 World Military Games, that 7 Service members who attended the games exhibited COVID-19- like signs and/or symptoms during the timeframe of October 18, 2019 through January 21, 2020. The COVID-19-like symptoms could have been caused by other respiratory infections. All 7 Service members&#8217; symptoms resolved within 6 days.”
“The December 2022 report, which the Biden administration was required by law to release to the public over two years ago but didn’t, reveals for the first time that seven U.S. military service members contracted COVID-19-like symptoms during or after their participation in the World Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019—contradicting the Biden administration’s public claims in 2021 that there was no evidence that any American participants contracted the virus at those games,” <a href="https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/biden-administration-concealed-congressionally-mandated-report-on-earliest-suspected-american-covid-cases/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Free Beacon</a>, which broke the story, noted, adding, “The revelation adds to a mounting body of evidence that the virus was circulating in Wuhan for months before China disclosed it to the world in December 2019 and further bolsters the growing consensus that it could have leaked into the human population from a Chinese lab.”
The report was not made public until last month when the Trump administration uploaded it to the Department of Defense website.
“The U.S. team used chartered flights to and from the games via Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Washington was one of the earliest states to show a spike in COVID-19,” The American Prospect<a href="https://prospect.org/coronavirus/did-the-military-world-games-spread-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> reported</a> in June 2020.
In May 2020, The Daily Mail <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8327047/More-competitors-reveal-ill-World-Military-Games.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that athletes from different countries suspected they might have contracted COVID-19 at the 2019 World Military Games. French pentathlete Elodie Clouvel said she and her partner Valentin Belaud contracted COVID-19 at the Games. Italian fencer Matteo Tagliariol claimed everyone in his Wuhan apartment got “symptoms that looked like those of Covid-19.” Jacqueline Bock of the German volleyball team said, “After a few days, some athletes from my team got ill. I got sick in the last two days. I have never felt so sick. Either it was a very bad cold or Covid-19. I think it was Covid-19.”
“Taxpayers deserve to know the truth about COVID-19 origins, but the Biden administration concealed this information from the American people for years,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) told the Free Beacon. “This report should have been made public immediately and not restricted to Washington insiders. If Americans visiting Wuhan were potentially infected with the COVID-19 virus in October 2019, those claiming the pandemic began in a wet market just two months later would be completely off base.”

7th CISM Military World Games

Biden Admin Reportedly Hid Report That Service Members May Have Gotten COVID In Wuhan — In Oct 2019

Athlete

Biden Administration

China

COVID-19

Joni Ernst

Wuhan

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel allegedly covered up a report from her country&#8217;s foreign intelligence service that concluded that the likelihood that the coronavirus pandemic originated from a Chinese lab was overwhelming.
The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), German&#8217;s version of the CIA, conducted an intelligence gathering operation dubbed “Saaremaa” that concluded that there was an 80%-95% likelihood that the pandemic originated during a lab accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The findings were contained in a report from a joint investigation by two German newspapers, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit, that alleged Merkel decided to keep the bombshell that she learned about in 2020 “under lock and key.”
Merkel likely made the decision to keep the explosive report secret at least in-part because she did not want to help President Donald Trump&#8217;s re-election prospects in 2020 when much of the world resisted his well-founded claims that China was responsible for what happened.
The report and its coverup by Merkel are likely to sink her approval numbers even lower as she grapples with facing intense backlash over her disastrous policies that have wreaked havoc on her country and Europe.
The backlash against Merkel hit new levels after she wrote a new memoir hoping to “secure her crumbling legacy,” The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/angela-merkel-german-people-to-blame-for-the-problems-millions-of-refugees-are-causing">reported</a>, which noted that “the effort is backfiring.”
The more than 700-page book was “riling up even some of her most ardent supporters” because she does not believe that any of her failed policies were bad for the country — including allowing millions of Muslim refugees from the Middle East to be resettled in Germany.
Powerful German state broadcaster ARD titled the headline of their report on her book: “Much pride, little self-reflection.”
Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party blame her directly for the problems that the country is facing and they say that her memoir is making things even worse.
“The publication of this unrepentant, self-righteous book at a time of economic and political turmoil like this is hurting [her political party],” said former senior Merkel official Nico Lange.
The report said that her approval rating has plummeted from her time as a popular elected official to someone that the German public has turned against. Her allies overseas have abandoned support for her, the report said.
The most shocking part of the report focused specifically on her retelling of why she allowed millions of Muslim refugees into Germany.
Merkel said that it was “fully irrelevant whether they had a right to stay in Germany or not” when she let them enter the country.
She then blamed the German people for the problems that the refugees have caused:
<blockquote>The consequences—failed integration, ballooning welfare spending, rising crime, political polarization—can be partly blamed, she writes, on Germans’ lack of “will to change.”
In the decade since she instituted her open-door policy, immigration has changed the face of Germany and its political dynamics. An average of around 400,000 immigrants—the population of a large German city—have entered each year, and Germany now spends as much on refugees as it does on defense.</blockquote>
The report noted that the phrase that Merkel repeatedly used to justify her failed policies — that she had “no alternative” but to do what she did — served as the inspiration for the Alternative for Germany, or AfD.

GERMANY-POLITICS-VOTE-MERKEL

Angela Merkel Covered Up Explosive German Intel Report Blaming Chinese Lab For Pandemic

Angela Merkel

Germany

House lawmakers released their final comprehensive report on COVID on Monday detailing how government officials misled the public about the origins of the pandemic. 
The <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/12.04.2024-SSCP-FINAL-REPORT.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">520-page report</a> from the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic covered everything from school closures to gain-of-function research to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/fauci-unmasked" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Anthony Fauci</a>’s leadership of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The release of the report comes after the committee spent two years conducting over 30 transcribed interviews and depositions, holding 25 hearings and meetings, and going over over one million pages of documents. 
“The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a distrust in leadership. Trust is earned,” Chair Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) wrote in a letter accompanying the report. “Accountability, transparency, honesty, and integrity will regain this trust. A future pandemic requires a whole of America response managed by those without personal benefit or bias. We can always do better, and for the sake of future generations of Americans, we must. It can be done.”
One of the key findings of the report was that COVID likely originated and leaked out of a lab, a view that was once banned by Facebook but now echoed by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/covid-likely-leaked-from-wuhan-lab-senate-gop-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Senate Republicans</a> and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-responds-to-u-s-energy-departments-revised-wuhan-lab-leak-theory" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of Energy</a>. The report said that COVID “likely emerged because of a laboratory or research related accident.”
The report noted that public officials from both China and the United States tried to hide facts that might confirm the lab leak theory. “The Chinese government, agencies within the U.S. Government, and some members of the international scientific community sought to cover-up facts concerning the origins of the pandemic,” the report said. 
For example, the lawmakers said that Fauci prompted the writing of an academic paper to undermine the lab leak theory in early 2020. The paper, known as “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pandemic-origins-subcommittee-suggests-fauci-prompted-doctors-to-draft-paper-to-disprove-lab-leak-theory" target="_blank" rel="noopener">argued</a> that it was not plausible for the virus to come from a lab. 
The lawmakers further concluded that the NIH funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. According to the report, this research was facilitated by the EcoHealth Alliance and Peter Daszak, who the government <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hhs-moves-to-defund-ecohealth-alliance-says-action-needed-to-protect-the-public-interest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">moved to bar</a> from future federal funding earlier this year. 
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift-guide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://get.dailywire.com/gift-guide/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1732727087136000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3Ao27zcTCGutKhTz_xpaKC">CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE</a>
The report accused former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of “medical malpractice,” saying that he acted to publicly cover “up the total number of nursing home fatalities in New York.”  The panel previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-panel-refers-andrew-cuomo-to-doj-for-criminal-prosecution-over-covid-testimony" target="_blank" rel="noopener">made a criminal referra</a>l against Cuomo for allegedly lying about his knowledge of a report that was used to defend a New York policy that placed COVID patients in nursing homes.
Additionally, the report was critical of the Biden administration&#8217;s vaccine mandate, which was later struck down by the Supreme Court. The lawmakers wrote that the government was currently failing &#8220;to efficiently, fairly, and transparently adjudicate claims for the COVID-19 vaccine injured.&#8221;
Other findings of the report were that lockdowns of schools caused significant learning challenges for children and that pandemic aid was plagued by fraud and waste. Wenstrup wrote that the lockdowns were overly strict and broad and caused &#8220;predictable anguish and avoidable consequences.&#8221;
“Just a few short years ago, arguing that COVID came from a Chinese lab and that lockdowns &amp; authoritarian measures didn’t work would get you censored and kicked from social media,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said of the report. “This report will stand as a warning for future generations of what NOT to do.”

White House Coronavirus Task Force Holds Daily Briefing

‘What Not To Do’: Final House Report Finds Gov Misled Public About COVID

Covid vaccine

House Oversight Committee

Pandemic

Vaccine Mandate

Dr. Anthony Fauci recently published a new paper that touched on both HIV/AIDs and the COVID-19 pandemic — and in it, he not only doubled down on his insistence that COVID had a natural origin but also claimed that President-elect Donald Trump had suggested &#8220;bleach injection&#8221; as a possible treatment.
Jerry Dunleavy shared several excerpts of the paper via X, commenting, &#8220;Fauci is out with a new scientific paper on HIV/AIDS &amp; COVID-19 where he falsely claims Trump told people to inject bleach &amp; where he argues COVID-19 has a natural origin (Wuhan lab leak not even mentioned) by citing the same authors who wrote the infamous Proximal Origins paper.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Fauci is out with a new scientific paper on HIV/AIDS &amp; COVID-19 where he falsely claims Trump told people to inject bleach &amp; where he argues COVID-19 has a natural origin (Wuhan lab leak not even mentioned) by citing the same authors who wrote the infamous Proximal Origins paper. <a href="https://t.co/3Cx1NC7Emc">pic.twitter.com/3Cx1NC7Emc</a>
&mdash; Jerry Dunleavy IV 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) <a href="https://twitter.com/JerryDunleavy/status/1862484026063561168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 29, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In the highlighted sections, Fauci wrote that &#8220;abundant evidence from top evolutionary virologists and leading scientists in other fields strongly suggests that the virus jumped species from an animal reservoir to humans at the Huanan Market in Wuhan, China, and then spread throughout China and the rest of the world.&#8221;
The former White House medical advisor added, &#8220;Trump gave credence to unproven and potentially dangerous substances for COVID-19 prevention and treatment such as bleach injection.&#8221;
What Trump <a href="https://www.wral.com/story/fact-check-biden-says-trump-told-americans-to-inject-bleach-to-treat-covid-19/21351899/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">actually asked</a>, during a COVID-related press conference, was whether there was a way to use an injection to introduce the benefits of ultraviolet light or &#8220;almost a cleaning&#8221; to knock out the virus before it attacked the lungs.
Fauci&#8217;s new paper comes just as Trump has named Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, one of Fauci&#8217;s leading critics, to head the National Institutes of Health in the incoming administration.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift-guide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://get.dailywire.com/gift-guide/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1732727087136000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3Ao27zcTCGutKhTz_xpaKC">CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE</a>
Bhattacharya was one of the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, published in 2020, and voiced opposition to the widespread lockdowns and closures during the pandemic. He told Fox News in 2023 that both Fauci and then-NIH Director Francis Collins had &#8220;created an illusion of scientific consensus around their ideas and marginalized anyone that disagreed with them even though there wasn&#8217;t a scientific consensus. It&#8217;s a pattern of behavior that reflects an abuse of power by American scientific bureaucrats at the very top of our scientific bureaucracies.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya talks about Dr. Anthony Fauci secretly crafting the &quot;Proximal Origin&quot; paper that dismissed the lab leak as a conspiracy theory:
&quot;Tony Fauci and Francis Collins created an illusion of scientific consensus around their ideas and marginalized anyone that… <a href="https://t.co/rzuKFQphpW">pic.twitter.com/rzuKFQphpW</a>
&mdash; KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) <a href="https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1633644247021924352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

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

Fauci Published A New Paper On COVID And No One Is Buying It

Politics

The Department of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/health-and-human-services" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Health and Human Services</a> (HHS) has blocked EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak from being eligible for taxpayer-funded research projects. 
In a <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/HHS-SUSP4D-Notice-of-Dr.-Peter-Daszak_05.21.2024_Redacted.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> made public on Wednesday by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, the HHS informed Daszak that the agency has suspended him from being eligible for government grant money and is moving to make the suspension permanent. The letter comes after Daszak’s organization has come under fire for its ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, from which COVID is suspected by multiple federal agencies to have leaked. 
A separate <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/HHS-SUSP4D-ARM-of-Dr.-Peter-Daszak_05.21.2024_Redacted.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">document</a> from the HHS says that Daszak was not forthcoming with federal investigators in providing information on its work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology and in demonstrating that the EcoHealth Alliance had not violated the terms of its federal grant. 
Specifically, HHS said that neither the EcoHealth Alliance nor the Wuhan lab disproved allegations that an experiment at the lab yielded an unapproved increase in viral activity. 
“I also find that the information in the record constitutes adequate evidence to demonstrate that the suspension and proposed debarment of Dr. Peter Daszak is necessary due to a cause of so serious or compelling a nature that it affects his present responsibility,” the document, written by an unidentified, HHS official said. 
The suspension of Daszak began on Tuesday and will continue as the NIH moves to formally debar the scientist. 
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1713635892817000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3lXMk_jhNQC8Fngje8e8XV">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
“EcoHealth Alliance President Dr. Peter Daszak’s personal debarment will ensure he never again receives a single cent from U.S. taxpayers nor has the opportunity to start a new, untrustworthy organization,” <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/release/breaking-hhs-to-debar-dr-peter-daszak-president-of-ecohealth-alliance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup. This step comes just two weeks after the Select Subcommittee released substantial evidence of Dr. Daszak’s contempt for the American people, his flagrant disregard for the risks associated with gain-of-function research, and his willful violation of the terms of his NIH grant.”
The proposed block on Daszak comes after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hhs-moves-to-defund-ecohealth-alliance-says-action-needed-to-protect-the-public-interest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">news broke</a> that the HHS would be suspending funding to the EcoHealth Alliance and moving to permanently bar the organization from receiving federal funds. 
“Dr. Daszak’s impending debarment does not shield him from accountability to the American people. It appears that Dr. Daszak may have lied under oath about his relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology and his compliance with NIH grant procedures,” Wenstrup added.

CHINA-HEALTH-VIRUS

HHS Blocks Prez Of Group Tied To Wuhan Lab From Receiving Federal Funds

Coronavirus

Department of Health and Human Services

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.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JBqXYpO1QpE?si=CU_okvaBbSABEgeA" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

US-POLITICS-CONGRESS-HOMELAND-SECURITY

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

Rand Paul

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.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1695922680238000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1td8rZHHPiCaFajmmCGDcy">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
&#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

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.”
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
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.

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

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:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
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>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
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>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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.
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-7029">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
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>
<div class="css-j7qwjs">
<div id="post-body-text">
<div class="e1nzmkc90 css-15jw47d">
To listen to the audio version of Afternoon Update, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/morning-wire/id1576594336" target="_blank" rel="noopener">click here</a>. And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="css-issjf2">
<div></div>
</div>

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

Health Care

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.”

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

Perjury

Menu