The claim that the synthetic mRNA-based COVID-19 genetic therapies were "safe and effective" was repeated ad nauseam not only by former President Joe Biden during the pandemic but by health officials in his administration — including former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, and former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky.

It may then come as a surprise that not all high-ranking federal health officials were keen on this particular characterization.

'Science doesn't tell you what your actions should be.'

When reached for comment about a new tranche of recently released emails of Anthony Fauci, former Biden administration acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock told Blaze News that she protested the "safe and effective" description.

But first let's rewind. On Sunday, Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) published a May 27, 2021, email sent by Dr. Woodcock to Fauci and then-National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins regarding the perceived need to set aside scientific research funds to later investigate COVID-19 vaccine side effects.

"I have been contacted by a number of people who have experienced adverse events post COVID-19 vaccination (from all three of the current vaccines)," wrote Woodcock. "Many are healthcare professionals, some of whom I know. The symptoms do not fit together into a distinctive syndrome and most are not easily quantifiable or evaluated with standard laboratory testing."

Woodcock, who became acting FDA commissioner in January 2021 as the vaccines were being pushed on the nation, was sympathetic to the concerns of some apparent vaccine casualties that "no one takes them seriously, no one knows how to treat them" and that there had been "no effort to study this."

Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

"I think it would be worthwhile to do a study and evaluate a cohort of these individuals," said Woodcock. "But of course $ need to be made available, and you would need an investigator who is interested in 'medical mysteries.' I doubt the industry would support, for obvious reasons."

Woodcock provided Blaze News with insights into her proposal.

"I was thinking, 'Could we find some kind of treatment to offer these folks?' But first, you have to understand what's going on, right? You can't just sort of go out and treat people," Woodcock told Blaze News. "So that was my objective in this. ... I don't think it's probably different than any other immune challenge, and I wouldn't want anyone to think that I felt the vaccine was dangerous or should not be used or anything. By no means. It was simply that if people were having this reaction, we could find a way to study it."

When pressed — in light of her concerns at the time — about the "safe and effective" description, Woodcock responded, "Well, look. I always told our press office, 'Don't call it safe and effective, because no medical intervention is 100% safe.' Even water. You could kill yourself by drinking too much water, literally."

The FDA noted in recent years that it was "confident in the safety and effectiveness" of the COVID-19 vaccines. While apparently hesitant herself to use that phrasing, Woodcock stated in 2021 that "the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product."

Woodcock offered Blaze News what she regards as a better pitch for the vaccine: "What it is is the benefits far outweigh the risks, and that's the standard for all drugs that are approved, all medicines that are approved, because none of them are free of side effects, which is the kind of ordinary, you know, meaning of the term 'safe.'"

While the former acting commissioner noted that many health experts suggested during the pandemic that the "benefits way outweigh the potential harms" of the vaccines, people nevertheless "do use the term 'safe and effective' a lot, which is a statutory term."

Woodcock emphasized that any intervention "that you do has to be pretty safe, right? But that doesn't mean it's totally without adverse events."

Adverse events were in some cases deadly.

The FDA admitted in an internal letter last year that FDA Office of Biostatistics and Pharmacovigilance career staff had "found that at least 10 children have died after and because of receiving COVID-19 vaccination."

Dr. Vinay Prasad, the former chief medical officer at the FDA and director at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in the letter that the OBPV performed an analysis of 96 deaths between 2021 and 2024 and concluded "that no fewer than 10 are related. If anything, this represents conservative coding, where vaccines are exculpated rather than indicated in cases of ambiguity. The real number is higher."

On the matter of takeaways from the handling of the pandemic, Woodcock told Blaze News that while the "development of the vaccines was a scientific triumph," "science doesn't tell you what to do. Scientists often forget that."

"Science just tells you the facts," she continued. "What do to do — especially about society, right — is a value judgement that should take into account the facts, but science doesn't tell you what your actions should be."

HHS and the FDA did not immediately respond to Blaze News' requests for comment.

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First domino to fall? Fauci's 'consigliere' pleads GUILTY to role in COVID cover-up

David Morens, a longtime acolyte of Anthony Fauci, has pleaded guilty to his role in the attempted cover-up of federal records pertaining to the origin of the COVID-19 virus and to a clandestine initiative to restore U.S. funding to the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology via disgraced British zoologist Peter Daszak's EcoHealth Alliance, according to the Department of Justice.

"This is potentially the watershed moment in seeking long overdue and morally required accountability for perhaps the biggest travesty ever foisted upon the American people," stated BlazeTV host Steve Deace.

'The race now is on for Fauci's felons to rat each other out.'

Morens served as senior adviser to Fauci in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' Office of the Director from 2006 through 2022. In April, he was indicted and charged with conspiracy, destruction of records in federal investigation, and concealment of records.

Under the deal he ultimately struck with federal prosecutors, Morens pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to commit offenses and to defraud the United States. He now faces up to five years in prison.

"Morens obstructed the Oversight Project's investigation and pled guilty to it today," Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News. "I hope this serves as a lesson to other bureaucrats that it is our government and we pay them to work there and for us. It's our information, and they should never hide it from us."

Morens' attorney, Tim Belevetz, said in a statement to Blaze News, "By pleading guilty today, Dr. Morens has taken responsibility for what he did, and he will continue to do so."

David Morens. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

While speculation abounds, it remains unclear whether Morens has agreed to testify against the unnamed co-conspirators in his case.

FBI Director Kash Patel noted, however, that "this FBI investigation remains ongoing."

Over concerns that COVID had leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where dangerous gain-of-function experiments were conducted on coronaviruses, the National Institutes of Health terminated in 2020 a grant to EcoHealth Alliance titled "Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence," which EcoHealth Alliance had subawarded to the WIV.

'There will be no "there" there.'

The Justice Department noted on the basis of Morens' guilty plea that after the grant was terminated, Morens and "Co-Conspirator 2" helped "Co-Conspirator 1" restore the grant "and counter the narrative that COVID-19 leaked from a lab."

Context appears to indicate that "Co-Conspirator 1" in this case is Daszak.

For starters, the DOJ noted that the NIH terminated "Co-Conspirator 1's" grant and named the grant, which documents show was received by Daszak's now-defunct company, EcoHealth Alliance. The DOJ noted further that Co-Conspirator 1 made the subaward to the WIV, which his company had done. Furthermore, Daszak's name repeatedly comes up in the Morens emails previously released by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which show them discussing ways to hide their communications from public view.

Politico identified "Co-Conspirator 2" as Gerald Keusch, a former director of NIH's Fogarty International Center who now works with the NIAD lab at Boston University.

Neither Daszak nor Keusch has been charged with a crime in this case, and neither responded to Blaze News' request for comment.

"In anticipation that their communications would be requested through FOIA Requests, Morens, Co-Conspirator 1, and Co-Conspirator 2 agreed in writing to intentionally hide their communications from public view by corresponding using Morens’s personal Gmail account, rather than his official NIH email account," said the DOJ.

Emails previously published by the subcommittee highlight the intentional nature of Morens' evasiveness.

In an April 21, 2021, email to Daszak, Morens wrote, for instance: "I forgot to say there is no worry about FOIAs. I can either send stuff to Tony [Fauci] on his private gmail, or hand it to him at work or at his house. He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble."

In a May 13, 2021, email to Keusch with Daszak CC-ed, Morens referred to "our 'secret' back channel."

In another email to Keusch dated Nov. 19, 2021, Morens wrote, "BOTH my gmail and phone calls are now safe. Text is NOT, as it can be FOIA'd, as can my govt email. So you and Peter and others should be able to email me on gmail only."

Morens allegedly even sought the help of the NIH FOIA office for instruction on how to delete federal records.

"I learned from our foia lady here how to make emails disappear after i am foia'd but before the search starts, so I think we are all safe," he wrote in a Feb. 24, 2021, email. "Plus i deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to gmail."

Disgraced zoologist Peter Daszak. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The Justice Department noted that "the co-conspirators used Morens’s personal Gmail account to exchange non-public NIH information; correspond about their efforts to influence NIH to fund Company 1; exchange edits to drafts of letters addressed to NIH leadership for Company 1 and Co-Conspirator 1; and 'back-channel' information to Senior NIAID Official 1."

In addition to admitting to his efforts to keep Americans in the dark about federal employees' damning discussions, Morens admitted to conspiring with "Co-Conspirator 1" to pay illegal gratuities.

"Co-Conspirator 1" is alleged to have said that he would treat Morens to meals at Michelin-starred restaurants around the world and gifted him wine for his "behind-the-scenes shenanigans" and even arranged for its delivery.

'Fauci and Morens were on a radical mission to remake America.'

Morens' guilty plea has inspired hope that Fauci might soon similarly be visited by consequence.

"Despite Anthony Fauci’s attempts to distance himself, David Morens was Fauci’s trusted consigliere and fixer for some 30 years," Matt Kibbe, the host of BlazeTV's docuseries "The Coverup," told Blaze News. "They had coauthored over 40 articles together, including this Orwellian nugget from November 2020 in the academic journal Cell: 'Living in greater harmony with nature will require changes in human behavior as well as other radical changes that may take decades to achieve: rebuilding the infrastructures of human existence.'"

"Fauci and Morens were on a radical mission to remake America, mad scientists who viewed the rest of us all as caged beagles in their laboratory," continued Kibbe. "But then they got caught, and Morens’ guilty plea gives me new hope that justice will find Fauci as well. Much more receipts on Morens and Fauci in my series 'The Coverup,' particularly Episode 2 featuring Rand Paul."

Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University told Blaze News, "Morens' guilty plea is an important first step in holding accountable the malfeasant U.S. officials who funded the reckless gain-of-function research in Wuhan that caused COVID and who then defrauded the global public about the origin of COVID."

"It seems possible, even likely, that Morens was 'flipped' and that Morens' guilty plea is the product of a plea bargain in which Morens has agreed to testify against Fauci, Daszak, Keusch, and others," continued Ebright.

Justin Goodman, the senior vice president of the White Coat Waste Project, told Blaze News that Morens' guilty plea, Fauci's recent contempt vote, and other recent steps toward accountability "are signs that knives are finally out for the conniving animal experimenters who caused and covered up a likely lab leak in Wuhan. Hopefully more heads will roll."

Fauci's legal representative and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland did not respond to Blaze News' requests for comment.

"The COVID cartel has one less member," wrote Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson (R). "Accountability has begun, and much more needs to follow."

Editor's note: Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News.

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Fauci was apparently warned to save '$$' to tackle vaccine fallout: 'Will come back to bite you'

Anthony Fauci and other health officials who told Americans the COVID-19 vaccines were "safe and effective" had suspicions to the contrary, a new document drop from Republican Sens. Ron Johnson (Wis.) and Rand Paul (Ky.) appears to show.

A newly released email from May 2021 seemingly reveals that the head of the Food and Drug Administration was so concerned about the novel mRNA vaccines that she advised Fauci and then-National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins to create a contingency fund to deal with the fallout from them.

'We cannot ignore her.'

During the pandemic, Fauci was the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases director and the face of America's mass vaccination campaign. He routinely emphasized the safety and efficacy of the vaccines and made a point of expressing his "extreme confidence" in the science behind them.

"I want to encourage everyone who has the opportunity to get vaccinated so that we can have a veil of protection over this country that would end this pandemic," he said during his televised vaccination ceremony in December 2020.

Behind closed doors, however, he had his doubts.

The immunologist privately highlighted, for instance, a potential association between vaccination and miscarriage in a Jan. 25, 2021, text exchange with the surgeon general and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP/Getty Images

"I asked around a bit more and another issue came up that you need to be aware of," Fauci told Vivek Murthy and then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. "Since many people have significant cytokines storm and fever after the 2nd dose, this theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester."

Fauci — who was made aware later that day that initial pregnancy studies avoided "vaccination in first trimester due to possible fever and higher rates of miscarriage in first trimester" — stated publicly just days later that the data pertaining to vaccination among pregnant women "so far has no red flags."

Private concerns were not limited to the vaccine's impact on pregnant mothers and their unborn babies.

On Sunday, Sen. Johnson, chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, published a May 27, 2021, email sent by then-acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock to Fauci and then-NIH Director Collins regarding the perceived need to begin squirreling away scientific research funds to later investigate vaccine side effects.

While cognizant that "during mass vaccination you will get a lot pf psychological reactions," Woodcock was nevertheless sensitive to complaints among apparent vaccine casualties that "no one takes them seriously, no one knows how to treat them" and that there had been "no effort to study this."

By the time the FDA commissioner sent this email, VAERS, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, had already received reports of 8,650 deaths associated with the COVID injection, with 39% of those deaths taking place within two days of injection, noted Johnson's office.

After casting doubt on the ability of VAERS to detect the full spectrum of side-effect cases, Woodcock stated in the email: "I think it would be worthwhile to do a study and evaluate a cohort of these individuals" who allegedly experienced "adverse events" after receiving the vaccine.

"But of course $$ need to be made available, and you would need an investigator who is interested in 'medical mysteries,'" wrote Woodcock. "I doubt the industry would support, for obvious reasons. But my experience is, that if you let a problem fester, then it will come back to bite you later and you are not prepared."

Fauci subsequently told Collins, "We cannot ignore her. We should probably bring in CDC and see what Rochelle thinks."

Johnson's office noted that based on the information reviewed to date, it's unclear whether Walensky was ever consulted.

Blaze News did not immediately receive a response from the CDC, the FDA, or an attorney representing Fauci. Woodcock could not be reached for comment.

Roughly three months after Woodcock echoed the complaints of apparent vaccine casualties, she celebrated the FDA's first approval of a COVID-19 vaccine, which had previously been made available as a result of the agency's Emergency Use Authorization authority.

"While this and other vaccines have met the FDA’s rigorous, scientific standards for emergency use authorization, as the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product," Woodcock stated at the time.

Johnson expressed outrage over the newly released email, writing, "Why wasn’t the public alerted to their concerns? Why did they continue to push and mandate the COVID shot? Why weren’t Americans allowed fully informed consent?"

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EXPOSED: Fauci privately raised miscarriage concerns while publicly claiming ‘no red flags’

Newly released text messages from Dr. Anthony Fauci revealed a stark contrast between his private concerns and his public statements about COVID-19 vaccines and pregnancy. While Fauci assured Americans in 2021 that roughly 20,000 vaccinated pregnant women had shown “no red flags,” private messages from the same period show him discussing potential risks.

“Since the EUA and under the EUA, approximately 20,000 pregnant women have been vaccinated with no red flags, as we say, and this is being monitored by the CDC and the FDA,” Fauci said in 2021.

However, texts from Dr. Fauci’s phone reveal a much different story.

“I asked around a bit more and another issue came up that you need to be aware of. Since many people have significant cytokines storm and fever after the 2nd dose, this theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester,” he wrote.

Two weeks later, Fauci said, “[FDA] have found thus far, and we have to be careful, but thus far, no red flags about that, about pregnant women.”

BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere is disturbed by the contrast.

“So that’s what he was saying publicly, while showing those sorts of doubts privately. And honestly, whether you think the COVID vaccine was great or you think it was terrible, whatever you think, you shouldn’t be doing those two things,” Stu comments.

“The man was asking other people in these circles, other physicians, other researchers, to delete emails to hide them. That is absolutely a crime when you’re a government official,” he adds.

Co-host Dave Landau points out that that wasn’t all Fauci was doing.

“He was asking that people be fired, have their medical license taken away. He was saying that he was ‘the science,’ that he was the be-all, end-all of what this was supposed to be,” Dave says.

Dave also explains that several of his friends' wives miscarried after getting the COVID shot.

“I had three people text me yesterday because their wife miscarried after that booster,” he says.

“I talked to a person yesterday as well who had a similar situation," Stu says.

"That’s four, though, just at this table," says Dave.

"But again, that’s, you know, it’s anecdotal,” Stu says.

“That’s a rough anecdote,” Dave adds.

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Texts: Fauci And Friends Covered Up Concerns About The Covid Vax And Miscarriages

The latest communications from the Covid czar, obtained by the committees investigating him, note concerns about 'mutations.'

Fauci is yesterday’s fight. Medical freedom is today’s.

I’m tired of the “exposing the left” phase of conservative politics. I’m ready for the “implement what’s right” phase. Anyone want to join me?

For the past two weeks, President Trump, congressional Republicans, and conservative media have focused relentlessly on Anthony Fauci and the damage done during COVID. Fine. Fauci deserves scrutiny.

This is what medical freedom requires: informed consent, transparent data, meaningful long-term follow-up, and an absolute rejection of mandates or coercion.

But Fauci is no longer in charge. Republicans are.

That’s why it is maddening to watch the same party denounce Fauci while refusing to confront the policies and products that defined his era. Trump continues to praise the COVID shots. Republican senators confirmed Dr. Erica Schwartz, who disciplined soldiers in the military for not getting the COVID shots. And the Trump FDA is moving forward with Moderna’s dangerous mRNA influenza vaccine for adults 50 and older.

If the lesson of COVID is merely that Fauci was bad, then we learned almost nothing.

The real question is whether government will once again approve and promote a novel platform without demanding the kind of evidence skeptics were told not to ask for last time.

Respiratory viruses present a difficult vaccine target because they mutate rapidly and immunity can wane. Critics of the COVID vaccination campaign have argued for years that these characteristics can produce disappointing or even counterproductive results under some conditions — concerns I have written about again and again.

Even Fauci acknowledged part of the underlying problem. In a 2023 paper, he wrote that current vaccines against respiratory viruses often produce “incomplete and short-lived protection” and that genuinely better vaccines would require “outside the box” thinking.

That should have prompted humility. Instead, the federal government is now considering another mRNA respiratory vaccine, this time for influenza.

The problem is not that every vaccine is bad. The problem is that after COVID, regulators should be demanding unusually strong evidence before expanding the platform into another mass-market respiratory product.

The evidence deserves scrutiny.

A 2025 Cleveland Clinic preprint, which I highlighted, reported that employees who received that season’s influenza vaccine experienced a higher cumulative incidence of laboratory-confirmed influenza during the study period. The preprint was observational, not a randomized trial, and it should not be treated as the final word. But its findings are exactly the kind that should trigger more investigation, not less.

Jim WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

A Canadian study of the 2018-2019 flu season likewise found negative vaccine effectiveness in certain age groups and discussed the possibility that vaccine mismatch interacted with pre-existing immune imprinting.

And a 2005 JAMA Internal Medicine analysis questioned whether rising influenza vaccination coverage among the elderly could explain the decline in influenza-related mortality over previous decades.

None of those papers, standing alone, proves that influenza vaccination is harmful. Together, they underscore a simpler point: The science of respiratory virus vaccination is complicated, and regulators should stop pretending otherwise.

That is especially true for mRNA.

Newly released material from Fauci’s files shows that Nobel laureate Drew Weissman warned Fauci in February 2021 about mouse data showing lipid nanoparticles reaching the placenta and fetus after administration during pregnancy.

Animal data does not automatically predict human harm. But it does raise obvious questions about biodistribution — questions that should have been answered aggressively before officials demanded public confidence in the platform.

Now the FDA’s briefing document for Moderna’s mRNA influenza vaccine shows another reason for scrutiny. In the agency’s review, grade 3 systemic reactions were substantially more common among mRNA vaccine recipients than among recipients of a conventional influenza vaccine.

That does not establish that the product is broadly unsafe. It does establish that the newer platform is more reactogenic in the trial population, and it makes the quality and duration of the safety database more important, not less.

The FDA document also acknowledges that the available safety database is too small to detect rare adverse events such as myocarditis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and other neurological events.

That is not an accusation. It is the limitation of the evidence the FDA itself describes.

And this is where the political hypocrisy becomes impossible to ignore.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Republicans cannot spend one week demanding accountability for Fauci and the next tell Americans to trust the same institutional habits that made the COVID era so destructive: compressed debate, zero transparency, contempt for dissent, and an assumption that uncertainty should be managed through public relations campaigns rather than openly discussed.

Myocarditis after mRNA COVID vaccination is a recognized adverse event, although public health agencies continue to describe it as “rare” and concentrated most heavily among adolescent and young adult males. Whatever one believes about the overall risk-benefit calculation, that experience alone should have permanently raised the evidentiary bar for another mRNA product intended for broad use.

This is what medical freedom requires: informed consent, transparent data, meaningful long-term follow-up, and an absolute rejection of mandates or coercion.

It also requires conservatives to stop treating Fauci as a substitute for governing.

Fauci is yesterday’s issue. Trump and congressional Republicans have the controls now. If they believe the COVID era was a catastrophe, then prove it by changing the rules that made it possible. Demand stronger safety evidence. Protect informed consent. End coercive vaccination policy. Force regulators to disclose uncertainty rather than bury it. Otherwise, all the hearings, subpoenas, and Fauci outrage amount to nothing more than political theater.

The point of exposing past mistakes is to stop repeating them.

Doc dump reveals top secret Bill Gates clearance during COVID years

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says that Bill Gates had a "private editor" who worked at the National Institutes of Health.

At the same time, Paul released documents that point to Gates having the highest level of access at the Department of Energy as well as getting insider briefings from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

'Is this coordinated in some way, or is Bill going rogue?'

Known as "Q" clearance, the DOE classification is the department's rough equivalent to Top-Secret National Security Information clearance for access to Restricted Data, the DOE's special category of classified information.

In a huge document dump as part of his ongoing investigation into the origins of COVID-19, Paul showed that Gates held the clearance for seven years, "including during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic."

The period spanned from June 11, 2014, to December 6, 2021; those dates were provided to Paul in a June 30 letter from the DOE.

Further documents revealed that Dr. Anthony Fauci served as Gates' "private editor," with Gates requesting Fauci's feedback on a memo in April 2020. The memo was titled "Pandemic I: The First Modern Pandemic," which "set out how Gates was thinking about the COVID pandemic."

Gates later asked Fauci to edit his book "How to Prevent the Next Pandemic."

Another item in the released files stated that DARPA had given the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation a private briefing on four military biological threat programs. This included a 90-minute session on programs like PREEMPT, which has a stated aim of "targeting viruses in animals before they emerge in humans."

Much of the revelations were in regard to the Gates Foundation (formerly the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) and its ties to the federal government.

"When the NIH director urgently asked what his agency's ties to the Gates Foundation were, the answer came back that the foundation had been funding pieces of NIH," the documents explained. An internal review at the NIH included that the foundation had "funded various components of NIH."

Gates' influence even led him to making suggestions to the president at the White House. In 2018, NIH Director Francis Collins reported that Gates met with President Biden in the Oval Office to discuss promoting a universal flu vaccine.

Collins allegedly asked, "Is this coordinated in some way, or is Bill going rogue?"

J. David Ake/Getty Images

As further evidence of the Gates Foundation being intertwined with federal agencies, Paul said at the end of July that Collins told Gates' wife that much of his tenure had been spent bringing the NIH and the foundation closer together.

In October 2021, just after announcing his resignation, Collins wrote:

"It has been a privilege to work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation over these 12 years, and I am glad to have had the chance to bring our global health efforts even closer together than ever."

Paul was clear, summarizing the relationship between Gates and the NIH as one that included "personal access" to the federal government.

"Bill Gates had a Q Clearance and a private editor at NIH. Across nearly 20 years, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation built a relationship with the federal government that ran on personal access as much as formal partnership."

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Armed Hero Proves Why We Need the Second Amendment | 8/3/26

'That absolute coward': Aaron Rodgers goes scorched-earth on 'criminal' Anthony Fauci as fans go ballistic

Aaron Rodgers minced no words when talking about former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday, repeatedly calling him a "coward" in front of a live audience.

The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback was meant to be talking football and his feelings heading into likely his last year in the NFL, but it took less than one minute for the interview to shift from pro ball to politics.

'Did they do even a minute on Tony Fauci? I bet they didn't.'

Appearing on ESPN's "The Pat McAfee Show" live from Steelers training camp, host Pat McAfee started off by asking Rodgers simple questions about where his head is at before the start of the 2026 campaign.

"Can you tell us about the mindset of coming into your last season?" McAfee asked.

"How do you kind of view this year versus maybe the years of the past?"

"I'm going to plead the Fifth," Rodgers quickly replied. "Like that absolute coward, Tony Fauci."

Rodgers was referring to Fauci invoking the Fifth Amendment 111 times last week during a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Rodgers' comments immediately started to rile the crowd up, escalating into jaunts and jeers as Rodgers increased his rhetoric.

"Are you kidding me? You got a pardon, and you pleaded over 100 times?" Rodgers continued.

"What are you scared of, Tony? I thought you were the science!"

Rodgers mocked the doctor for not answering any questions and then looked straight into the camera and seemingly set his sights on ESPN.

The 42-year-old started listing the critical coverage of his "responses," his "vaccination status," and even coverage of the marriage between singer Taylor Swift and NFL tight end Travis Kelce.

"Did they do even a minute on Tony Fauci? I bet they didn't," Rodgers claimed before McAfee's panel hilariously urged him to go back to insulting Fauci. Much to their pleasure, the Super Bowl champ obliged as the crowd erupted in "M-V-P!" chants.

Rodgers claimed that Fauci was "spending the entire time writing in his diary about how fun it is to be famous. You got to be kidding me! What are they going to say about me now? ... They can't talk about the COVID stuff because obviously it was made in a lab in China, that's, like, not even questionable anymore."

Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images

As McAfee informed Rodgers they had only four minutes to speak — so he'd like to get some football talk in — the former University of California QB took a second to applaud pundit Stephen A. Smith.

Just days earlier, Smith apologized for his 2021 comments when he suggested NBA player Kyrie Irving made himself look "flat-out stupid" for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. In hindsight, Smith said, "It didn't make him stubborn or selfish; it made him brave."

In response, Rodgers said to Smith, "You are not a coward. I appreciate you."

Viewers may be surprised to see that McAfee did not back off from the conversation. In fact, he took significant time to talk about the abuse he took for hosting Rodgers on his platform at the time in 2021.

McAfee said that given his history with the quarterback and all they had discussed years prior, he knew Rodgers would have something to say. This culminated in McAfee leading an applause with the live audience for Rodgers.

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COVID-era FDA chief sounded internal alarm over calling mRNA shots 'safe and effective'

First domino to fall? Fauci's 'consigliere' pleads GUILTY to role in COVID cover-up

Fauci was apparently warned to save '$$' to tackle vaccine fallout: 'Will come back to bite you'

EXPOSED: Fauci privately raised miscarriage concerns while publicly claiming ‘no red flags’

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Texts: Fauci And Friends Covered Up Concerns About The Covid Vax And Miscarriages

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