XPost: alt.tv.pol-incorrect, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.usa
XPost: sci.med.diseases
Dr. Anthony Fauci has been accused by critics of lying after newly
released documents appear to contradict his claims that the National
Institute of Health did not fund gain-of-function research at China’s
Wuhan lab.
Senator Rand Paul led the criticism against Fauci on Tuesday after the documents, obtained by The Intercept, detailed grants given to
EcoHealth Alliance — the nonprofit that funneled federal funds to the
Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research.
Included in the trove of documents is a previously unpublished grant
proposal that EcoHealth Alliance, which is run by Peter Daszak, filed
with Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
Fauci has repeatedly insisted that NIH funding of the Wuhan lab does
not constitute as “gain-of-function” research.
“Surprise surprise – Fauci lied again. And I was right about his agency
funding novel Coronavirus research at Wuhan,” Sen. Paul tweeted after
the documents were made public.
The grant proposal included in the documents was for a project titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence,” which involved
screening thousands of bat samples, as well as people who worked with
live animals, for novel coronaviruses, the outlet said.
The $3.1 million grant was awarded for a five-year period between 2014
and 2019. After the funding was renewed in 2019, it was suspended by
the Trump administration in April 2020.
The grant directed $599,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research.
https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/09/wuhan-doc.jpg? quality=90&strip=all
Fauci clashed with Paul during a Senate hearing in July after the
Kentucky senator quizzed the infectious disease expert about earlier
testimony he had given in which he denied NIH-funded gain-of-function
research.
The proposal acknowledged the risks of such research, saying:
“Fieldwork involves the highest risk of exposure to SARS or other CoVs,
while working in caves with high bat density overhead and the potential
for fecal dust to be inhaled.”
The documents also include a second grant titled “Understanding Risk of Zoonotic Virus Emergence in Emerging Infectious Disease Hotspots of
Southeast Asia”, which was awarded in August last year.
Under the terms and conditions of that grant approval, there is a
section noting that prior to “further altering the mutant viruses”, the
NIAID needs to be given a “detailed description of the proposed
alterations and supporting evidence for the anticipated phenotypics characteristics of each virus.”
Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, said the documents – obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request — made it
clear that Fauci had been “untruthful” about gain-of-function research.
“The documents make it clear that assertions by the NIH Director,
Francis Collins, and the NIAID Director, Anthony Fauci, that the NIH
did not support gain-of-function research or potential pandemic
pathogen enhancement at WIV are untruthful,” he tweeted.
“The materials show that the 2014 and 2019 NIH grants to EcoHealth with subcontracts to WIV funded gain-of-function research as defined in
federal policies in effect in 2014-2017 and potential pandemic pathogen enhancement as defined in federal policies in effect in 2017-present.”
“This had been evident previously from published research papers that
credited the 2014 grant and from the publicly available summary of the
2019 grant. But this now can be stated definitively from progress
reports of the 2014 grant and the full proposal of the 2017 grant.”
Gary Ruskin, executive director of U.S. Right To Know, told the
Intercept that the documents provided a “road map to the high-risk
research that could have led to the current pandemic.”
NIH funding of work at the Wuhan lab has come under increasing scrutiny
amid the pandemic, with Republican senators like Rand Paul of Kentucky
and Tom Cotton of Arkansas accusing Fauci of lying about whether the
money was used for gain-of-function research.
Fauci clashed with Paul during a Senate hearing in July after the
Kentucky senator quizzed the infectious disease expert about earlier
testimony he had given in which he denied NIH-funded gain-of-function
research.
Paul, citing two academic papers by the Wuhan institute, accused Fauci
of “obfuscating the truth” by not admitting that the lab was involved
in gain-of-function research.
https://html.scribdassets.com/737mlze7408xorri/images/1-b785c41cd9.jpg
Fauci told the hearing the research had been evaluated “multiple times
by qualified people” who found it did not “fall under the gain-of-
function definition.”
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Trump won.
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