By Charles “Sam” Faddis | AND Magazine | May 14, 2021
When asked by Senator Rand Paul recently about funding for gain of function research at the Wuhan lab in China, Dr. Anthony Fauci had this response.
- PAUL: “For years, Dr. Ralph Baric, a virologist in the U.S., has been collaborating with Dr. Shi Zhengli from the Wuhan Virology Institute, sharing his discoveries about how to create superviruses. This gain-of-function research has been funded by the NIH. … Dr. Fauci, do you still support funding of the NIH lab in Wuhan?”
- FAUCI: “With all due respect, you are entirely and completely incorrect. The NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
- PAUL: “Do you fund Dr. Baric’s gain-of-function research?”
- FAUCI: “Dr. Baric is not doing gain-of-function research, and if it is, it is according to the guidelines and is being conducted in North Carolina. … If you look at the grant and if you look at the progress reports, it is not gain-of-function, despite the fact that people tweet that, write about it.”
This is what we call in the world of intelligence a “lie.”
Melissa Tate on Twitter: “THIS IS GOLD: Anthony Fauci has been exposed by Rand Paul for his hand in ‘gain of function’ research that lead to the weaponization of the Coronavirus. Fauci tried to use semantics to get out of it but failed. Investigate him now pic.twitter.com/BzdAsbRdJ3 / Twitter”
THIS IS GOLD: Anthony Fauci has been exposed by Rand Paul for his hand in ‘gain of function’ research that lead to the weaponization of the Coronavirus. Fauci tried to use semantics to get out of it but failed. Investigate him now pic.twitter.com/BzdAsbRdJ3
In 2014, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) approved a 5-year grant to EcoHealth Alliance – a British-origin New York-based NGO research group that focuses on emerging diseases for research into “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.” This project was established to help understand how the SARS-like coronaviruses, jump species into humans.” The express purpose of this work was to facilitate “gain of function” research.
EcoHealth Alliance then pursued a worldwide program of field virus sample collection and genetic sequencing to discover hundreds of new viruses with work spread out between the University of North Carolina, the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, the Bellinzona Institute in Zurich, and Harvard Medical School. The funding of the Wuhan Laboratory was a fee for the field collection, genetic sequencing, and sequence analysis of collected and isolated viral samples.
During 2014 and 2015 a whole series of gain of function research studies were in fact done under the Obama Administration.
- Vineet D Menachery University of NC at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
- Boyd L Yount Jr University of NC at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
- Kari Debbink University of NC at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
- Sudhakar Agnihothram Toxicology Food and Drug Administration, Arkansas USA
- Lisa E Gralinski University of NC at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
- Jessica A Plante University of NC at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
- Rachel L Graham University of NC at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
- Trevor Scobey University of NC at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
- Xing-Yi Ge Special Pathogens Wuhan Institute of Virology
- Eric F Donaldson University of NC at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
- Scott H Randell University of NC at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
- Antonio Lanzavecchia Bellinzona Institute of Microbiology, Zurich
- Wayne A Marasco Harvard Medical School, Boston
- Zhengli-Li Shi (Bat Woman) Special Pathogens Wuhan Institute of Virology
- Ralph S Baric University of NC at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
In October 2014, the NIH paused the gain of function research on creating viruses with enhanced pathogenicity or transmissibility in mammals via the respiratory route. Yet the NIH panels responsible for guiding such research, apparently nevertheless permitted work to continue in Wuhan using NIH-NIAID funding.
In these expressly “gain of function” experiments, the spike protein from a coronavirus isolated from a cave bat in Yunnan Province, China, was genetically engineered into the genetic material of a mouse-adapted SARS-Virus. The new virus that was created was able to bind and replicate efficiently in cultured human airway cells into amounts that would be considered infectious to humans. The newly engineered virus could also still bind to the lungs of mice causing severe disease.
Scientists had now succeeded in producing a coronavirus that could spread to humans and could cause severe illness. These experiments were allowed by Fauci’s NIAID.
Rand Paul on Twitter: “”…Nicholas Wade, says, “From June 2014 to May 2019 EcoHealth Alliance had a grant from NIAID, part of the National Institutes of Health, to do gain-of-function research with coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”https://t.co/ozCrRv5DYD / Twitter”
“…Nicholas Wade, says, “From June 2014 to May 2019 EcoHealth Alliance had a grant from NIAID, part of the National Institutes of Health, to do gain-of-function research with coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”https://t.co/ozCrRv5DYD
In 2017, gain of function studies were once again reinstated by the NIH. Coinciding with the publication of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS)’s 2017 Framework for Guiding Funding Decisions About Proposed Research Involving Enhanced Potential Pandemic Pathogens (HHS P3CO Framework), the pause on gain of function experiments was lifted providing certain conditions were met.
During the 2014-2019 time period money from NIH continued to be paid by EcoHealth Alliance annually to the Wuhan Institute to fund this type of research.
On January 10, 2018, EcoHealth Alliance applied for a second NIH-NIAID grant based on their previously described gain of function experiments that showed that the bats in southern China harbor an extraordinary diversity of SARS-like coronaviruses, some of which can use the human ACE-2 receptor to enter cells, infect humanized mouse models causing SARS-like illness, and evade available therapies or vaccines. Scientists were now working with diseases that could not be cured using available techniques and medications.
“Grant Request: Project Number 2R01AI110964-06 – Project Leader Peter Daszak
- Aim 1. Characterize the diversity and distribution of high spillover-risk SARS-like CoVs in bats in southern China with additional bat sample collection and spike proteins to identify viruses with the highest potential for spillover in southern China.
- Aim 2. Community, and clinic-based syndromic, surveillance to capture SARS-like CoV spillover into humans, routes of exposure, and potential public health consequences.
- Aim 3. In vitro and in vivo characterization of SARS-like CoV spillover risk using S protein sequence data, infectious clone technology, in vitro and in vivo infection experiments and analysis of receptor binding to test the hypothesis that % divergence thresholds in S protein sequences predict spillover potential.”
⬆️⬆️. These are gain of function experiments. ⬆️⬆️
Emerald Robinson ✝️ on Twitter: “The Wuhan lab leak theory explained: at minute 29:52 in this video, Peter Daszak says he’s manipulating bat coronaviruses in a lab. He’s grafting spike proteins on the backbone “of another virus.” This is 2019. Who funded Daszak? Dr. Fauci & NIH. https://t.co/pzBgmlqQjh / Twitter”
The Wuhan lab leak theory explained: at minute 29:52 in this video, Peter Daszak says he’s manipulating bat coronaviruses in a lab. He’s grafting spike proteins on the backbone “of another virus.” This is 2019. Who funded Daszak? Dr. Fauci & NIH. https://t.co/pzBgmlqQjh
In July 2019, this second grant was approved by Fauci’s NIH-NIAID. The new grant was for $7.5 million expected to run through 2024 and distributed across the primary awardee, EcoHealth Health Alliance Inc. (New York), and sub-awardees, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the East China Normal University (Shanghai), the Institute of Pathogen Biology (Beijing), and Duke-NUS Medical School (Singapore). All of the named Chinese research centers are affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party.
On April 23, 2020, by order of President Trump, NIH informed EcoHealth Alliance that it would no longer receive funding from the agency and that the remainder of its grant had been rescinded. The agency cited a statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that the intelligence community was investigating the origins of COVID-19.
While the NIH soon reversed its termination of the grant on July 8, 2020, it suspended actual funding until EcoHealth met new requirements, including arranging an inspection of the Wuhan Institute of Virology by an outside team.
None of the facts outlined above are in dispute. They are all a matter of public record. They have been recognized as such by any number of prominent experts.
Per Dr. Richard Ebright, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University and biosafety expert:
‘The Wuhan lab used NIH funding to construct novel chimeric SARS-related coronaviruses able to infect human cells and laboratory animals. This is high-risk research that creates new potential pandemic pathogens (i.e., potential pandemic pathogens that exist only in a lab, not in nature). This research matches — indeed epitomizes — the definition of ‘gain of function research of concern’ for which federal funding was ‘paused’ in 2014-2017.”
DR. RICHARD EBRIGHT, PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTY & CHEMICAL BIOLOGY, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY
“Chimeric” coronaviruses – in this case – refers to those that have been altered and enhanced in such a way as to make them more transmissible and dangerous to humans.
The demonstrable truth is that over the course of many years Fauci and NIH pursued gain of function research, even it appears when such research was supposed to have been terminated. Such research was done at the Wuhan lab. In fact, the work on viruses harvested from bats at Wuhan, in particular, was central to the ongoing gain of function effort.
Raheem. on Twitter: “Well, well, well, Dr. Fauci. https://t.co/GTEDraQKtW / Twitter”
Well, well, well, Dr. Fauci. https://t.co/GTEDraQKtW
So, yes, Fauci lied, to a U.S. Senator, under oath. Probably not the first time...
