As concerns mount regarding the US’s funding of gain-of-function research on dangerous pathogens, documents from a 2014 public records request cast doubt on the honesty of health officials

David Zweig:

While gain-of-function research—and its potential connection to the origin of SARS-CoV-2 and the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)—continues togenerate headlines, and inquiries from Congress, one aspect of this evolving story over the past several years has remained constant: Anthony Fauci’s repeated evasions and outright denials about the U.S. government’s funding of this type of risky research, which can make viruses more deadly.

When questioned during a November 2021 Senate hearing about the National Institutes of Health funneling money to the WIV, and whether the lab there conducted GOF research of concern, Fauci issued a complex denial. Much of it rested on lawyerly semantics, where he admitted that “gain of function is a very nebulous term.” And in a hearing in May 2021, Fauci responded to similar questions narrowly, that “the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”

As I explained in my piece on gain-of-function research for The Free Press last week—according to numerous experts and an obvious reading of the grant applications for work conducted at the WIV—the NIH, indeed, did fund this type of research in Wuhan.