The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of engaging in a cover-up in a hearing titled “Investigating the Proximal Origin of a Cover Up.”
The GOP discovered private messages from scientists that show they believed a China lab leak was the cause of the virus but under pressure from Fauci they conspired to support the lab leak theory.
The report said: “Former NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci and Former NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins were directly involved in the drafting, publication, and public promotion of Proximal Origin — a paper written to suppress the COVID-19 lab-leak hypothesis.
“There was a coordinated effort between public health officials in the United States government and expert scientists to craft a narrative that would advance the zoonotic origin of COVID-19 in order to protect the Chinese government from any potential criticism and repercussions.
“The conclusions drawn by the co-authors of “Proximal Origin” rest on insufficient evidence, draw inaccurate assumptions, and have never been proven or verified by the wider scientific community.
“Dr. Kristian Andersen confirmed the U.S. funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell below recommended bio-safety markers.
“Scientific integrity was abandoned by Dr. Fauci, Dr. Collins, and the co-authors of Proximal Origin in favor of political expediency.
“Suppressing a legitimate scientific theory to advance the preferred narrative of senior government officials is egregious and must be fully investigated.
“There is still more work to be done to hold public health officials accountable for their actions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Select Subcommittee emphasizes its outstanding request for transcribed interviews and documents from Dr. Fauci and Dr. Collins.”
Chairman Wenstrup: “We’re examining whether scientific integrity was disregarded in favor of political expediency – maybe to conceal or diminish the government’s relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology or its funding of risky gain of function coronavirus research. Or maybe to avoid blaming China for any complicity, intended or otherwise, in a pandemic that has killed more than one million Americans and has had a crushing effect on humankind itself.”
Rep. McCormick: “To say that it’s just because it’s in the same area somewhere that a dog was found or a cat was found or whatever you want to say is for me, just like– smear some COVID on this wood and say, Look, it came from this wood.
“To give our people who are watching this, who are maybe not medical background to understand, that’s obviously impossible.
“Just like it’s impossible to have a virus that exists inside of an animal species go away and not have any sort of immune response or any propagation, if that’s where it came from in the beginning.
“And that’s where I find a huge hole in your theory as scientists. I love science. I’m trying to follow your science, and I don’t get it. I just don’t get it.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s found in the same area. Did it continue to live in that species? Is it still?
“I know for a fact China has looked for it hard and killed lots of animals trying to find it and cannot find this natural immune response and this natural propagation of a species. So therefore, my natural conclusion is it didn’t come from there.”
Rep. Jackson: “You completely changed your hypothesis. You collaborated with your coauthors and you wrote the Proximal Origins paper all in that period of time….I just want you to know that sounds completely ridiculous to the American people.
“And it’s completely in step with what a lot of people think is going on here, is that Dr. Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins realized that they had been implicated in the production or in the creation of this virus.
“And they were doing everything they could, including getting both of you to come on board as tools or vehicles to undermine that theory.”
See the report here.
On a Feb 2, 2020 private Slack channel with the other authors of the Nature Medicine article, Dr. Rambaut expresses concern about China being accused of an accidental release of COVID and suggests the group should deny any evidence of a specifically engineered virus. pic.twitter.com/xOiRINkt1s
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) July 11, 2023
In response to Dr. Rambaut’s message above, Dr. Andersen replied, “Yup, I totally agree that that’s a very reasonable conclusion. Although I hate when politics is injected into science – but its impossible not to, especially given the circumstances.” pic.twitter.com/xl12wLJttR
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) July 11, 2023
