For much of 2020, the former US President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans publicly denounced COVID-19 virus expert Dr Anthony Fauci’s suggestions for mitigating the pandemic. Dr Fauci, who is the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is now President Joe Biden’s Pandemic Advisor.
Some Republicans now suggest that Dr Fauci could be personally involved in the origin of the COVID-19 virus itself. A Republican Senator says that Dr Fauci authorised and funded risky research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). There is nothing new about this theory that has surfaced several times in the past. But the Republicans say that it was not examined and investigated properly due to lack of curiosity from health officials and pro-China bias of the American media, as per media reports.
On May 10, 2021, the US conducted a congressional hearing on the COVID-19 virus (Wuhan virus). All top health officials testified before a Senate Committee. The hearing covered a host of things like the ongoing vaccination drive, President Biden’s pandemic response, the future of mask mandate and the origin of the Wuhan virus.
Regarding the origin of the Wuhan virus, a war of words broke out between Rand Paul, the Republican Senator from Kentucky, and Dr Fauci. Senator Paul accused America’s Federal Agencies of funding “Gain-of-Function research” at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China.
Dr Anthony Fauci is at the centre of a storm regarding gain-of-function research and hypotheses on the origin of coronavirus
Now, what is Gain-of-Function research? It is a sort of experiment which involves genetic modification of viruses to create variants that are more infectious, to better understand them. Dr Fauci happens to be a leading advocate of the Gain-of-Function research. He was instrumental in re-authorising this research domestically in America after it was suspended due to safety concerns. He allowed American scientists to create more infectious versions of viruses to study them. The Republican Senator alleged that Dr Fauci knew China was conducting such experiments. He pressed Dr Fauci to call out what he called a conspiracy. Senator Paul asked Dr Fauci: “Think for a moment that SARS virus had 15% mortality. We are fighting the pandemic that has about 1% mortality. Can you imagine that if SARS virus — that has been juiced up and had a viral protein added to its spike protein — was released accidentally? Dr Fauci, do you still support funding of that, is NIH (National Institutes of Health) funding the laboratory in Wuhan?” Dr Fauci replied that Senator Paul was entirely incorrect. He said that NIH had not ever and did not now fund Gain-of-Function-Research at the Wuhan institute. The senator further told Dr Fauci that he had allowed 11 labs in America to conduct such experiments, and that they were fooling with nature. He accused Dr Fauci of allowing China to do the same.
Science writer Nicholas Wade has detailed at length as to why he believed that a lab-created virus in this case is a much more likely cause than a natural one.
Senator Paul mentioned that “For years, Dr Ralph Baric, a virologist in the US, has been collaborating with Dr Shi Zheng-li from the WIV, sharing his discoveries about how to create super viruses. This Gain-of-Function research has been funded by the NIH.” Again, with carefully selected words, Dr Fauci replied that the NIH had not ever and did not now fund Gain-of-Function research in the WIV.
Nicholas Wade, who is a science writer, editor, and author, and has worked on the staff of magazines such as Nature, Science, etc., argues that the Chinese lab is the most likely source of the ongoing world-wide agony. Wade has detailed at length as to why he believed a lab-created virus in this case is a much more likely cause than a natural one. It is documented that researchers at the WIV were doing Gain-of-Function experiments designed to make coronaviruses infect human cells. This is exactly the kind of experiment from which a SARS2-like virus could have emerged.
There is a demand around the world for fast-track investigation into the truth behind COVID-19’s origin. This includes the United Kingdom where media reports have put a spotlight on Dr Peter Daszak, who is a US national. The reports mention that the Pentagon gave $39 million to Dr Daszak’s Eco Health Alliance, which also received $64.7 million from the US Agency for International Development, popularly known as USAID. The reports also mention that it was not known as to how much of the money as alleged, went to WIV, for Gain-of-Function research.
When the virus first broke out in the US, and there was demand for inquiry about how the virus was engineered in a laboratory in Wuhan, then 27 scientists including Dr Peter Daszak had signed a statement which expressed solidarity with all scientists and health professionals in China. Whenever there has been talk about Wuhan lab leak, Dr Daszak has very vehemently opposed it and even called it a conspiracy theory. He was also part of the WHO team that had gone to Wuhan to investigate into the origin of the virus in January-February this year. This team had mentioned in its report that there was no conclusive evidence on the lab leaks.
As per media reports, EcoHealth Alliance paid the Wuhan laboratory more than $500,000 over a period of five years. This was with the approval of the US State Department.
The person who knows everything is Dr Fauci. In 2012, when the US was considering banning of Gain-of-Function research, Dr Fauci argued that it was important, and he even said that it was worth the risk of sparking a pandemic. In October 2012, he wrote: “In an unlikely but conceivably turn of events, what if that scientist becomes infected with the virus, which leads to an outbreak and ultimately triggers pandemic. Given the possibility of such a scenario — however remote — should the experiments have been performed and/or published in the first place, and what were the processes involved in this decision. Scientists working in this field might say — as indeed I have said — that the benefits of such experiments and the resulting knowledge outweigh the risks”.
When the pandemic exploded, the entire world wondered about its origin. Dr Fauci did not once mention the Gain-of-Function research or other research activities at the Wuhan laboratory. It was left to others to slowly uncover the truth. Markson further mentions that even when this worrying research was banned in the US back in 2014, US money continued to flow to China to fund the same research. And Dr Fauci is the man responsible for this. He was the head of NIH when the ban on the risky research was lifted in 2017. He sought that permission in a junior meeting with the Office of Science and Technology Policy, failing to mention it to any senior figures in the White House. Even Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State from 2018-21 or anyone else did not know that ban on Gain-of-Function research had been lifted. Behind the scenes, it seems, Dr Fauci was quite worried about the possibility that US money had helped create the virus or gone to the lab that had potentially sparked the coronavirus pandemic.
Further, Markson reveals that NIH was also funding research to genetically manipulate coronaviruses This project also involved the Wuhan Institute of Virology and two American institutions. Decorated military scientist Zhou Yusen was involved in this research in late 2019 not long before the pandemic hit the world. According to documents obtained by The Weekend Australian, Zhou Yusen, a respected military scientist for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who collaborated with the controversial WIV and American experts, submitted a patent for a COVID-19 vaccine on February 24 last year. He was the first to invent a vaccine for COVID-19 virus. and was listed under a PLA Medical Institution. That means that Chinese were working on a vaccine before China admitted there was an outbreak. As per media reports, this scientist was found dead in May 2020.
Scientists at Wuhan Institute of Virology
There are many more hidden facts in this pandemic which are gradually coming to light. With whatever that has been revealed so far, one can say that not just China, but Dr Antony Fauci should also be held accountable for this pandemic. By keeping quiet for over 18 months, he suppressed the truth that could have saved the lives of millions of people around the world.