Molecular biologist Richard Ebright this Wednesday published a letter from the NIH showing that a grant from the agency did fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Virology Institute, going against what Dr. Fauci said during his testimony in the Senate.
Fauci testified to U.S. Senators at a hearing back in May that his NIH “had never and does not currently fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Virology Institute.”
However, the NIH’s Oct. 20 letter to the Oversight Committee member Republican James Comer (KY) showed that the NIH grant, which was given to EcoHealth Alliance and then further awarded to the Chinese lab, funded a science project around 2018 and 2019 that actually tested “if spike proteins that naturally happen in bat coronaviruses circulating within China could bind to the human ACE2 receptor in a mouse.”
The letter said: “In this limited experiment, lab mice infected with the coronavirus known as SHC014 WIV1 became sicker than mice infected with WIV1 coronavirus.”
According to the Dept. of HHS, “gain-of-function” research is any research that helps a pathogen to cause illness.
Ebright tweeted that in the message, the NIH “corrects untruthful statements by NIAID Director Fauci and NIH Director Collins that the NIH did not fund any gain-of-function research in China.”
The NIH received the relevant documents in 2018 and reviewed the documents in 2020 and again in 2021.
The NIH–specifically, Collins, Fauci, and Tabak–lied to Congress, lied to the press, and lied to the public. Knowingly. Willfully. Brazenly.
— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) October 20, 2021
Furthermore, Ebright stressed that the NIH’s message seemed to show that EcoHealth Alliance broke the Terms and Conditions of the NIH grant.
The NIH said “out of caution and as another layer of oversight, language was introduced in the conditions of the grant given to EcoHealth that outlined the criteria for another review, like the requirement that the grantee report promptly a one log increase in growth.”
The letter also pointed out that the coronaviruses which were studied were unlikely to have turned into SARS-CoV-2, now commonly known as “COVID-19.”
Republican Senator Rand Paul (KY), whose questioning has previously led to Fauci denying that NIH was giving funds for gain-of-function research in China, tweeted: “‘I told you so’ does not even begin to cover this.”
“I told you so” doesn’t even begin to cover it here: https://t.co/9JFn85I24i
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) October 21, 2021
Republican Senator Tom Cotton (AR), who was mocked for saying that the coronavirus could have escaped from the Chinese lab, also spoke about the new NIH’s letter, saying, “Fauci knew. He should now be investigated and then prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.”
Fauci knew.
He should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. https://t.co/GboEpfwSNq
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) October 21, 2021
Author: Steven Sinclaire
