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Dr. Anthony Fauci’s claim last week in Senate testimony that research taking place at a Wuhan lab did not involve “gain-of-function” experiments, directly conflicts with a 2015 Nature magazine review of the study in question.
The Trends Journal extensively covered the Nature magazine story and the original study itself, in our 18 May 2021 article “BATSH*T CRAZY: WUHAN WALLS CLOSING IN AROUND FAUCI.”
Under questioning from Senator Rand Paul, Fauci refused to revise previous denials about the Wuhan lab research. The two had a tense exchange over the study in question:
PAUL: “Dr. Fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11, where you claimed that the NIH never funded gains-of-function research in Wuhan?”
FAUCI: “This paper you’re referring to was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain … and Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly, and I want to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about.”
“I have never lied before the Congress, and I do not retract that statement,” Fauci said elsewhere during the exchange, saying that Paul was implying that those at the NIH are “responsible for the deaths of individuals. I totally resent that and if anybody is lying here, Senator, it is you.”
But Nature, a mainstream science digest, also described the Wuhan lab study as involving gain-of-function research. And what’s more, the magazine specifically confronted the controversial aspects and dangers of such research. The magazine article stated:
“The argument is essentially a rerun of the debate over whether to allow lab research that increases the virulence, ease of spread or host range of dangerous pathogens—what is known as ‘gain-of-function’ research…
“The latest study was already under way before the US moratorium [on gain-of-function] began, and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) allowed it to proceed while it was under review by the agency, says Ralph Baric, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a co-author of the study.”
The Nature article also referenced Peter Daszak, whose organization EcoHealth Alliance acted as a funding conduit between Fauci’s NIAID and the Wuhan lab.
In 2020 Fauci assigned Daszak to a commission charged with determining whether the Wuhan lab was a possible source of the COVID-19 virus. Daszak eventually was recused, after his Ecohealth connections were publicized.
By that point however, the commission had already released an influential conclusion that the virus was likely natural in origin, and had no connection to the Wuhan lab. Those findings were used throughout 2020 to suppress any journalistic communications or digging into counter facts as “conspiracy theories”.
It’s clear that both Daszak and Fauci both had conflicts of interest with respect to having any role in determining the origins of the virus.
The Nature article quoted Daszak defending the work of Ralph Baric, a stateside expert in gain-of-function experimentation, who interfaced with Wuhan lab researchers:
“But Baric and others say the research did have benefits. The study findings ‘move this virus from a candidate emerging pathogen to a clear and present danger’, says Peter Daszak, who co-authored the 2013 paper. Daszak is president of the EcoHealth Alliance, an international network of scientists, headquartered in New York City, that samples viruses from animals and people in emerging-diseases hotspots across the globe.
“Studies testing hybrid viruses in human cell culture and animal models are limited in what they can say about the threat posed by a wild virus, Daszak agrees. But he argues that they can help indicate which pathogens should be prioritized for further research attention.”
TRENDPOST: The major takeaway from the Nature article is that Senator Rand Paul is no quack for calling the research in question exactly what scientists and journals have called it.
Paul has succeeded in drawing a clear picture that the current head of COVID policy in the U.S. funded controversial research outside the country at a time when it was banned by the Obama administration, attempted to cover up the possible origination of the virus, and is now repeatedly lying about it all to Congress.
Senator Paul has made a criminal referral regarding Fauci’s testimony.
Fauci also advocated a lifting of the ban on gain-of-function research just 11 days before Donald Trump was sworn in as President in 2016.