Did Dr. Anthony Fauci perjure himself in a congressional hearing?
Reasonable people may differ on the answer to that question – but those dissenting may not know the backstory. In a tense, combative series of exchanges in Congress recently, libertarian firebrand Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) grilled Fauci about his consistently inconsistent COVID-19 messaging and the origins of the virus that has paralyzed the planet for more than a year.
America’s doctor adamantly insisted that the federal institutions over which he has presided for decades – National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) -- did not fund gain-of-function studies to increase the transmissibility, pathogenicity, and lethality of coronaviruses for potential use as bioweapons. Paul characterized that claim as “verifiably false.”
And there may be a smoking gun that proves the senator right.
“Supervirus” gain-of-function studies were suspended in America in 2014 for the very real danger they posed in laboratory escape. Some highly concerning lab accidents had occurred at CDC headquarters in Georgia, and the Obama administration decided to err on caution’s side. During the internal chaos of the Trump administration, however, it is alleged that Fauci worked the system to midwife the resumption of the gain-of-function studies that previously had been suspended – without authorization from the White House to do so.
Under Fauci’s aegis, it is alleged this lethal bioweapons research was outsourced to the biosafety level 4 Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, in 2019. This was a back door for federal government and private interests to have their cake and eat it. The studies would continue -- but with the patina of plausible deniability that the United States had any association with them.
Paul apparently put the lie to Fauci’s multiple denials that NIH or NIAID in any way funded gain-of-function studies. The senator stated that the Chinese scientist known as the Bat Woman -- Dr. Shi Zhengli -- wrote a paper verified by MIT to be a gain-of-function study in which she acknowledged that her funding came directly from NIAID, which Fauci has directed since 1984. The doctor repeatedly and fervently denied that NIAID or NIH had ever funded gain-of-function studies to “juice up,” as Paul termed it, animal viruses to become highly infectious and dangerous to humans.
But Fauci may be cleverly dissembling. Paul, for one, says Fauci “came to Congress and lied.” And the reason? “He’s worried about culpability,” according to the Kentucky senator, himself a doctor.
Paul maintains that a cellular biologist from Rutgers University affirmed that the grant application is for a gain-of-function study in Wuhan. And in a damning exposé, the British paper The Daily Mail uncovered documents proving that Fauci’s NIAID funded a grant to the Institute of Virology in Wuhan for $3.7 million for gain-of-function studies.
This is made all the more disturbing and seemingly nefarious by the involvement of Peter Daszak, longtime president of the non-profit New York-based EcoHealth Alliance. Despite its anodyne name, the company’s charter is pandemic prevention. To that end, it apparently funded the collection of bat coronaviruses at the Institute of Virology in Wuhan and the collaboration between U.S. epidemiologist Ralph Baric and the Bat Woman. This may implicate the EcoHealth Alliance and Daszak in the COVID-19 pandemic, depending on whether or not it is confirmed the virus escaped the lab.
Daszak was hand-picked to join the World Health Organization’s inspection team sent to the Wuhan lab earlier this year, which many believe was a blatant conflict of interest, given his company’s apparent funding of the institute’s gain-of-function research. And the team’s findings – effectively, “move along, there’s nothing to see here” -- drew criticism and condemnation from 18 prominent scientists from such prestigious institutions as Harvard, Cambridge, and Yale, all of whom called for further, more transparent investigations into the lab and the origin of the virus.
Ridiculed as conspiracy theory throughout most of the last year, the idea of Wuhan lab escape of SARS CoV2 has gained prominent supporters. Eventually named COVID-19 – an initiative spearheaded by none other than the Bat Woman to help the CCP save face -- the Wuhan virus as lab-escaped bioweapon now counts former CDC head Robert Redfield among its true believers. In a recent interview with CNN’s medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, Redfield stated, "I am of the point of view that I still think the most likely etiology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory, you know, escaped." Gupta appeared amazed -- then later said he also believed Redfield’s thesis.
The exchange in Congress between Fauci and Paul could not have been more pointed or terse. Paul stated outright that Fauci’s statements about NAIAD not funding gain of function were “verifiably false,” but Fauci held his ground, insisting over and over it wasn’t true. But is it the truth or a tale of clever bureaucratic sleight of hand and back-door dealing?
We know the Pentagon funded EcoHealth Alliance to the tune of $39 million between 2013 and 2020. The money trail indicates the “charity” organization funded the Wuhan laboratory’s gain-of-function studies. Fauci asserts that NAIAD did not underwrite these studies, but was that just plausible deniability at work when he was confronted by Paul? The senator accused Fauci of dissembling and dramatically accused Fauci of “fooling with mother nature.”
The more this story unfurls, the more it suggests something rotten in Denmark. We need more brave, committed investigative journalists like Sharyl Attkisson, who is doing invaluable reporting on the virus’ origin, to drill down on the intrigue surrounding these allegations.
Although Dr. Shi admitted in her paper she received gain-of-function funding from NIAID, Dr. Shi now says this idea is an affront and has stated in very unscientific terms:
“To those people who believe in and are spreading the rumors perpetrated by third-rate media outlets … I would like to give this advice: shut your dirty mouths!"
Doth she protest too much?
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Read more from author Pennel Bird.
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