Dr. Fauci Allegedly Lied About Funding of COVID-19 ‘Gain-of-Function’ Research at the Wuhan Lab: What’s the Truth?

Critics have recently accused Dr. Antony Fauci of lying after recently-released documents appeared to oppose his claims that the National Institute of Health did not provide funding for the "gain-of-action" research at the Wuhan lab of China.

According to a New York Post report, Senator Rand Paul led a condemnation against Fauci on Tuesday after documents showed detailed grants provided to EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that channeled funds for bat coronavirus research to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The said documents are a formerly unpublished grant proposal that EcoHealth Alliance, operated by Peter Daszak, filed with the Fauci-led NIAID.

The health official has repeatedly insisted that the federal funding of the Wuhan lab does not establish as "gain-of-function" research, modifying the biological agent, and in the occurrence of a virus, could enhance its communicability and virulence.

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(Photo: HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images)
This general view shows the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province.

Contrasting Details

After the documents, obtained by The Intercept, went public, Senator Paul said on Twitter; he was right about Dr. Fauci's lying, specifically about his agency's funding for COVID-19 research at Wuhan.

In a follow-up post on Twitter later in the same day, the senator referred the issue to the Department of Justice. In connection to this, he tweeted he has already asked the DOJ "to review Fauci's testimony" for not telling Congress the truth.

This report needs to make it "abundantly clear" that should be held accountable; the senator also posted on Twitter.

This report indicated that the grant proposal contained in the document was for a project named "Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence," which engaged thousands of bat samples' screening and people working with animals for coronavirus.

Over 3 Million Grant

A more than $3 million grant was awarded for a period of five years between 2014 and 2019. Following the renewal of the said funding in 2019, the project was suspended in 2020 under the Trump administration.

The grant directed to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research amounted to $599,000. Such a proposal recognized the risk of such research that stated, "Fieldwork engages the highest risk of exposure to SARS," or other coronaviruses while working in caves with a high density of bats overhead and the probability of fecal dust to be breathed in.

Under that specific grant approval's terms and conditions, this report said, there is a section that notes that before the further alteration of the mutant viruses, there is a need for NIAID to be provided with the proposed alterations' detailed description, as well as supporting evidence for each virus's anticipated phenotypic characteristics.

'Untruthful' Assertions?

A similar KCBS report through MSN News specified that according to Rutgers University molecular biologist Richard Ebright, the documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request clarified that Dr. Fauci had been "untruthful" about gain-of-function research.

Ebright said the documents have made it clear that Francis Collins, the NIH Director, and Fauci, that the NIH did not financially back gain-of-function research of probable pathogen enhancement at WIV are lies.

The materials exhibited that the five-year-period NIH grants to EcoHealth with subcontracts to the Wuhan lab financially supported gain-of-function research as described in the federal policies taking effect from 2017 to the present.

This had been obvious, explained Ebright, from published research papers that attributed the 2014 grant and from the 2019 grant's summary that's publicly available.

However, this currently can be stated ultimately from progress reports of the 2014 grants and the complete proposal of the 2017 grant.

Answering the accusation, Fauci told the senator he had never lied before the Congress, and he's not retracting that statement.

This research being referred to was judged by qualified staff, up and down the chain, the NIAID continued, adding, "as not being gain-of-function."

Related report about the 'Gain-of-Function' research is shown on Republic World's YouTube video below:

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