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This past week NIH was forced to admit that it had funded dangerous gain-of-function research that likely resulted in the creation of the COVID-19 virus.
The news came in the form of a 20 October letter the NIH sent in response to an inquiry by Rep. James Comer (R-KY).
In the letter, NIH official Lawrence Tabak admitted that NIH did sponsor gain-of-function viral research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology via the US research non-profit EcoHealth Alliance.
According to Tabak, EcoHealth Alliance undertook a “limited experiment” sponsored by the NIH to examine whether “spike proteins from naturally occurring bat coronaviruses circulating in China were capable of binding to the human ACE2 receptor in a mouse model.”
According to Tabak’s letter, the tweaked virus made the mice it was tested in “sicker.”
The letter spelled huge trouble for U.S. COVID policy czar Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci adamantly denied the NIH was funding the controversial experimentation in Congressional testimony in May, under questioning from Sen. Rand Paul (D-KY).
The Trends Journal covered that testimony and possible ramifications for Fauci in “BATSH*T CRAZY: WUHAN WALLS CLOSING IN AROUND FAUCI” (18 May 2021).
Lying to Congress is a crime, and the seriousness of Fauci’s evasions, considering the Wuhan lab was the likely origin for COVID-19, can hardly be overstated.
Paul has already referred Fauci’s testimony to the U.S. Department of Justice.
As Tabak’s letter exploded in the news and focused new attention on Fauci, the NIH compounded its problems by trying to re-write the definition of “gain-of-function” research on their website.
An article on Zerohedge featured screen caps of the altered passages.
Original Definition available on 19 Oct:
Altered definition currently on NIH website:
In the context of the controversy surrounding Fauci’s testimony, the NIH’s latest action could easily be construed as an illegal cover-up attempt.
NIH Admits Holes In Its Oversight of Funded Research, While Denying Possible Link to COVID
The NIH letter contained other damning admissions. Tabak claimed the NIH had not received required information from EcoHealth concerning experiments being funded.
EcoHealth and its founding researcher Peter Daszak have already been outed for conducting gain-of-function research in collaboration with Ralph Baric, a North Carolina expert in the field, and researchers at Wuhan Lab, who had access to coronavirus strains from remote locales in China.
Tabak said in his letter to Rep Comer:
“The research plan was reviewed by the NIH in advance of funding, and determined that it did not fit the definition of research involving enhanced pathogens of pandemic potential (ePPP) because these bat coronaviruses had not been shown to infect humans. As such, the research was not subject to departmentmental review under the HHS P3CO Framework. However, out of an abundance of caution and as an additional layer of oversight, language was included in the terms and conditions of the grant award to EcoHealth that outlined criteria for a secondary review, such as a requirement that the grantee report immediately a one log increase in growth. These measures would prompt a secondary review to determine whether the research aims should be reevaluated or new biosafety measures should be enacted.
“EcoHealth failed to report this finding right away, as was required by the terms of the grant. EcoHealth is being notified that they have five days from today to submit to NIH any and all unpublished data from the experiments and work conducted under this award. Additional compliance efforts continue.”
At the same time, the letter sought to dismiss accusations that the web of experiments involving Daszak, Baric and the Wuhan lab, funded in part by the U.S. government via Fauci and the NIH, could in any way be linked to the COVID-19 virus.
In response to questions from Comer regarding similarities of viruses being manipulated by EcoHealth and Wuhan lab researchers, the NIH letter confirmed that RaTG13, a natural virus found in the Yunnan Province in China in 2013, shares 96% of its genomic code with COVID-19.
But the letter asserted:
“While it might appear that the similarity of RaTG13 and BANAL-52 bat coronaviruses to SARS-CoV-2 is close because it overlaps by 96-97%, experts agree that even these viruses are too far divergent to have been that progenitor of SARS-CoV-2.”
The news outlet RedState noted that the letter’s assertion was another deception. Though the variation between the two viruses might make a natural progression from one to the other unlikely, it doesn’t at all rule out that RaTG13 could’ve been manipulated to become SARS-CoV-2.
In fact, that’s exactly what gain-of-function experiments could’ve accomplished.
Paul Continues to Pressure For Fauci’s Removal and Prosecution
“They still to this day are trying to get around the truth,” Paul said on Thursday in a Fox News interview, reacting to the renewed controversy over Fauci’s Senate testimony. “They say ‘well it was unexpected that it gained function’.”
Paul continued:
“[Fauci’s] declination is this: it’s inadvertent, we didn’t know they were going to gain function. That is what a gain of function experiment is,’” Paul explained.
“You don’t know when you combine two viruses that they will be more deadly, but it might be if you have half a brain you know if you combine two viruses it might be more deadly.”
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