Government Employees Rebut Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Claim
Multiple government officials have refuted Dr. Anthony Fauci’s claim that the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) did not fund a certain type of research in China, according to newly released interviews.
Dr. Fauci stated while under oath in May 2021 that the NIH “has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the” Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). He maintained this position when questioned by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) a month later.
Gain-of-function research involves increasing the function of a pathogen, such as its transmissibility.
An experiment funded by the U.S. at the WIV before the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a bat coronavirus becoming more virulent, as disclosed by the NIH in October 2021.
Dr. Hugh Auchincloss, a close advisor to Dr. Fauci, informed the U.S. House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic that gain-of-function research encompasses “any research that attributes a new attribute to a biological agent,” according to excerpts from one of the recent interview transcripts.
When Dr. Fauci testified to Congress, the NIH defined gain-of-function research as research “that modifies a biological agent so that it confers new or enhanced activity to that agent.”
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The NIH removed this definition on the same day as the disclosure.
Dr. Lawrence Tabak, another long-time official at the NIH, also stated to lawmakers that the definition encompasses the experiment detailed in the NIH disclosure, as shown in another transcript.
“It certainly is an example of generic ‘gain-of-function,'” Dr. Tabak remarked.
The experiment disclosed by the NIH was funded by money channeled to WIV through the U.S.-based nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance.
The subcommittee’s evidence confirms that EcoHealth facilitated gain-of-function research at the WIV during the fifth year of receiving funding from the NIH, as stated in a release.
In a report on its inquiry into the grant, the subcommittee added that “Dr. Fauci’s testimony to Senator Paul misled the public regarding NIH funding of gain-of-function research at the WIV.”
Dr. Fauci, the former head of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also testified to the panel. While the complete transcript of that testimony has not been released, excerpts released recently showed him being challenged on the issue.
He explained that when he told Dr. Paul that the NIH never funded gain-of-function research, he was “referring specifically to the operative definition of ‘gain-of-function’ at the time, which is the P3CO framework.”
The Framework for Guiding Funding Decisions about Proposed Research Involving Enhanced Potential Pandemic Pathogens, or the P3CO framework, was introduced in 2017 as U.S. officials lifted a funding pause on gain-of-function experiments involving certain viruses.
The framework excluded some gain-of-function research, focusing primarily on “potential pandemic pathogens,” or pathogens deemed “likely highly transmissible and likely capable of wide and uncontrollable spread in human populations” and “likely highly virulent and likely to cause significant morbidity and/or mortality in humans.”
Experiments enhancing such pathogens increased their transmissibility and/or virulence, according to the framework.
Dr. Paul described testing done at WIV as being gain-of-function and questioned Dr. Fauci, whose agency provided the grant to EcoHealth that transferred some funds to the lab, on whether he still supported funding such research. “With all due respect, you are entirely incorrect—the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in that institute.”
The NIH disclosure later in 2021 revealed that a modified bat coronavirus made mice sicker than the original virus, and killed more mice.
“The experiment that EcoHealth conducted by creating a chimera increased the pathogenicity of the underlying virus. Is that fair?” Dr. Fauci was asked by the House subcommittee more recently.
He acknowledged this but clarified that the virus being tested was not a potential pandemic pathogen.
When presented with the statements by Drs. Auchincloss and Tabak, Dr. Fauci still refused to admit that the testing met the general gain-of-function definition.
“Because then, if I say yes, then, ‘Ah, yes, he says it was gain-of-function,'” he explained.
Dr. Fauci, who resigned as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in late 2022, is set to appear at a public hearing held by the subcommittee on June 3.
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