U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., steadfastly insists that Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has been supporting dangerous gain-of-function research with NIH funding, and that Fauci’s been collaborating with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in that research.
But, just as adamantly, Fauci — under fire in ongoing questioning in Senate hearings — claims he not only isn’t involved in gain-of-function research, but never has worked with the Wuhan Lab on it.
Gain-of-function research works on making pathogens deadlier or more easily transmissible. In a hearing Tuesday, May 11, 2021, Paul said a U.S. virologist had been working with the lab to do that, but Fauci denied it. "The NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology," Fauci responded.
So which is it? It’s possible the truth is simply in the semantics of which agency the money is coming from and going to and which scientists, specifically, are working in the labs on the research. In 2014 under President Obama, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy acknowledged that the U.S. is involved in this type of research when it called for gain-of-function experiments to stop after a wave of biosafety lapses at federal labs.
As reported by The Scientist, National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins said at the time, “NIH has funded such studies because they help define the fundamental nature of human-pathogen interactions, enable the assessment of the pandemic potential of emerging infectious agents, and inform public health and preparedness efforts.”
In 2015 the NIH itself posted an extensive report on its gain-of-function research. That report largely quotes NIAID virologist Dr. Kanta Subbarao — who would have been working under Fauci — who goes into great detail on what gain-of-function research is and why scientists like him believe it’s necessary.
And, in April 2020, in an article headlined “Dr. Fauci Backed Controversial Wuhan Lab With U.S. Dollars for Risky Coronavirus Research,” Newsweek said, “In 2019, with the backing of NIAID, the National Institutes of Health committed $3.7 million over six years for research that included some gain-of-function work. The program followed another $3.7 million, 5-year project for collecting and studying bat coronaviruses, which ended in 2019, bringing the total to $7.4 million.”
Newsweek said this research was done in two parts, one of which was in connection with a virologist at the Wuhan Lab. Fauci declined to comment for the article, Newsweek added.
SOURCES:
Fox News May 11, 2021
Nature October 22, 2014
The Scientist October 21, 2014
The NIH October 16, 2014
NIH Gain-of-Function Research 2015
Newsweek April 28, 2020