The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has finally admitted to funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the ground zero for the COVID-19 pandemic.
This admission directly contradicts previous statements made under oath by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
During the session led by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) pressed on whether NIH had funded gain-of-function research—a practice that involves making viruses more infectious to study their potential impact. The response from the Principal Deputy Director of the NIH, Lawrence Tabak, was revelatory.
Lawrence Tabak was named the Acting Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from December 20, 2021, to November 8, 2023. He took over for Dr. Francis Collins, who has been in the post for over a decade. Dr. Tabak has served as the Principal Deputy Director and the Deputy Ethics Counselor of NIH since August 2010.
“It depends on your definition of gain-of-function research,” Tabak said, before conceding, “If you’re speaking about the generic term, yes, we did.”
WATCH:
The National Institutes of Health admits to funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China@RepDLesko: “Did NIH fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through EcoHealth?”
Dr. Tabak: “If you’re speaking about the generic term, yes, we did” pic.twitter.com/CnbFx2TUzQ
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) May 16, 2024
This confession comes after years of denials from senior health officials, including Tabak and Fauci himself, about their involvement in such controversial experiments.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and chief medical advisor to the president, has consistently denied these allegations under oath.
In a 2021 Senate hearing, Fauci clashed with Senator Rand Paul over Fauci’s involvement in funding the Wuhan lab’s gain-of-function research that led to COVID-19.
“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,” Senator Paul said per Swarajya.
“This gain-of-function research has been funded by the NIH. … Dr. Fauci, do you still support funding of the NIH lab in Wuhan?”
“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.” Dr. Fauci responded.
“I do not have any accounting of what the Chinese may have done and I am fully in favor of any further investigation of what went on in China,” Dr. Fauci said. “However, I will repeat, the NIH…categorically has not funded gain of function research to be conducted in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
WATCH:
.@RandPaul: “Dr. Fauci, do you still support…NIH funding of the lab in Wuhan?”
Dr. Anthony Fauci: “Senator Paul, with all due respect, you are entirely and completely incorrect…”
Full video: https://t.co/ILTKlTSQdC pic.twitter.com/t0HxwsWXmm
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 11, 2021
Last August 2023, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) submitted an “official criminal referral” to the Department of Justice (DOJ), accusing Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, of committing perjury—a felony.
The accusation centers around an email from February 2020, in which Dr. Fauci detailed a call with British medical researcher Jeremy Farrar, then-director of the Wellcome Trust.
The email, recently unredacted and shared by RealClearPolitics White House reporter Philip Wegmann, reveals a discussion among “highly credible” scientists, including Francis Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, concerning mutations in the novel coronavirus (nCoV).
These researchers “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 intentionally inserted,” Fauci wrote on the email.
The email further highlights concerns over Wuhan University scientists’ work on gain-of-function experiments, a type of research aimed at understanding how bat viruses adapt to human infection. The concerns were further accentuated by the fact that the outbreak of COVID-19 originated in Wuhan.
“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,” Fauci added.
“This directly contradicts everything he said in committee hearing to me, denying absolutely that they funded any gain of function, and it’s absolutely a lie. That’s why I sent an official criminal referral to the DOJ,” Sen. Paul wrote.
This directly contradicts everything he said in committee hearing to me, denying absolutely that they funded any gain of function, and it’s absolutely a lie. That’s why I sent an official criminal referral to the DOJ. https://t.co/Y191SmMiIr
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 29, 2023
