Heritage report breaks down precisely how to hold China accountable for the COVID-19 cover-up, $18 trillion in damages



There have a been multiple efforts in recent years to hold the Chinese regime accountable in full or in part for the pandemic. For instance, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) introduced the China Lied, People Died Act last year, which would have prohibited "the availability of Federal funds for programs, projects, or activities in the People's Republic of China until amounts made available for COVID-19 relief in the United States have been reimbursed, and for other purposes."

Like Nehls' bill, most efforts to make Beijing pay for its maleficence have gone sideways or nowhere at all. According to the Heritage Foundation's Nonpartisan Commission on China and COVID-19, not all is hopeless.

The commission, chaired by former Director of National Intelligence and Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe (R), released a report Monday both assessing the cost of the pandemic and outlining ways that China can be made to answer for its role in maximizing the fallout of COVID-19.

The report noted that while other states, organizations, and individuals may have played contributing roles in the pandemic, "China has been in a league uniquely of its own in its active and aggressive opposition to honesty, transparency, and accountability regarding the virus and its spread."

"This behavior by the Chinese government, more than anything else, was the proximal origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, added the report."

Cover-up

The Heritage commission's report underscored both the intentionality and impact of the Chinese regime's cover-up of the spread of COVID-19.

"There were seven weeks during which Chinese officials could have shown good faith and honored their international commitments to try to prevent a domestic epidemic from becoming a global pandemic," said the report. "They consistently chose to do otherwise."

Blaze News previously detailed how Chinese authorities delayed warning the world about the emergency of COVID-19 and silenced those individuals who tried to raise the alarm.

While it appears the virus began spreading by the fall of 2019 at the latest, communist officials waited until Dec. 31, 2019, to alert the World Health Organization, then claimed, "The disease is preventable and controllable."

The Heritage commission's report noted that even when China finally got around to informing the WHO, it "withheld vital information," including the type of virus behind the illness, the actual number of infected persons, and insights into human-to-human transmission.

A Five Eyes intelligence dossier accused the Chinese regime in May 2020 of engaging in an "assault on international transparency" to the "endangerment of other countries," reported the New York Post.

The intelligence dossier indicated that Chinese officials had scrambled to bury evidence of the virus and its origins, "destroying" lab samples, censoring evidence of spread, and denying sample requests from other countries.

Extra to destroying lab evidence, the Heritage commission noted that Chinese authorities barred researchers and scientists, especially those linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, from sharing information about the virus their peers had likely engineered.

While lying to the world about the virus, the Department of Homeland Security intelligence service indicated that "the Chinese Government intentionally concealed the severity of COVID-19 from the international community in early January while it stockpiled medical supplies by both increasing imports and decreasing exports."

Not only did China deceive the world and exploit the deception, it locked down domestic travel while allowing infected Chinese citizens to travel internationally. According to the New York Times, 175,000 people left Wuhan on Jan. 1, 2020, alone. A total of 7 million people left Wuhan that month before travel was restricted, thousands of whom were infected.

The Heritage commission's report noted that there were 1,300 direct flights from Wuhan to 17 cities in the U.S. before the American government restricted travel on Jan. 31, 2021 — a move China and the WHO recommended against.

Costs

The commission noted that as of last month, over 1.1 million Americans were estimated to have been slain by the foreign-born virus. COVID-19 claimed the lives of roughly 28 million people worldwide.

Besides filling morgues and leaving empty chairs at dinner tables around the country, the report noted the pandemic drove roughly 97 million people worldwide into poverty; dropped the world's collective GDP by several points; sent unemployment skyrocketing; ejected billions of children out of classrooms, setting them back academically; and adversely impacted vulnerable persons' mental health.

'The Chinese government must be held accountable for its role in obfuscating the truth about the COVID-19 pandemic.'

The report emphasized that in the U.S., the pandemic left behind not only broken hearts and stunted children but also financial burdens.

The Heritage commission estimated that as of December 2023, the total cost of the pandemic in the U.S. had exceeded $18 trillion.

Deaths accounted for over $8.6 trillion of the total cost. Lost income alternatively accounted for $1.82 trillion of the total; chronic conditions for $6.02 trillion; mental health issues for $1.98 trillion; and educational losses for nearly a half-trillion dollars.

Comeuppance

The Heritage commission determined that "the Chinese government and its affiliates can be and should be held liable for damages to the United States and its people caused by Chinese negligence and malfeasance related to the COVID-19 pandemic."

To hold China accountable, however, the report noted that lawmakers must revise the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act to remove "a foreign sovereign's immunity in the specific context of the extraordinary circumstances of global pandemics that lead to more than one million excess deaths of American citizens and residents and are caused by a foreign state."

With FSIA amended to no longer stand in the way of holding China liable for damages, the commission indicated there would be several possible causes of action, including negligence; strict liability for abnormally dangerous activities; public nuisance; anti-competitive behavior; fraudulent misrepresentation; and civil Racketeer and Corrupt Organization Act violations.

In addition to targeting China generally, the commission indicated that two Chinese airlines that have subjected themselves to U.S. jurisdiction — China Southern Airlines Company Ltd. and China Eastern Airlines Company Ltd. — could also be fair game, along with Chinese manufacturers of personal protective equipment and the Chinese National Pharmaceutical Group.

The commission made clear, however, that there are other ways to skin a cat.

The commission made multiple recommendations, including:

  • Congress should create a reparations task force to cover claims against China and explore ways to expand U.S. federal court jurisdiction such that Chinese individuals and agencies can be held liable for U.S. civil claims.
  • Congress should pass former Republican Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher's BIOSECURE Act to "begin decoupling U.S. government and commercial supply chains from Chinese state-backed companies."
  • Congress should pass a law requiring an audit of all American funding for biomedical and other such research activities in China, where the working presumption is that all research should be canceled unless "relevant sponsors can demonstrate that their research projects are overwhelmingly in the public interest and entail extremely low risk of harm."
  • The president should impose sanctions on Chinese officials and organizations linked to the cover-up of the virus and its initial spread and get serious about the threat of gain-of-function research.
  • The president should block U.S. outbound investment in the Chinese biotechnology sector.
  • The president should lean on the WHO to hold China accountable for violating Articles 6 and 7 of the International Health Regulations.

A failure by American leaders to act would incentivize the CCP "to persist in its nontransparent, noncooperative, and even hostile behavior," said the report.

Ratcliffe said in a statement, "The Chinese government must be held accountable for its role in obfuscating the truth about the COVID-19 pandemic — a pandemic that caused more than 1 million American deaths and $18 trillion in economic damage in the United States."

"While most of our government and media have focused on legitimate concerns about the origins of the virus, we must also focus on how the [Chinese Communist Party's] lack of transparency and distortion of facts accelerated a global pandemic, regardless of how COVID-19 originated," added Ratcliffe.

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Pentagon makes horrifying admission about its funding of Chinese gain-of-function experiments



The year millions of people were killed worldwide by a virus likely engineered in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese scientists in Beijing began toying with a more deadly coronavirus variant called GX_P2V that killed humanized mice 100% of the time, largely with late-stage brain infections. While not formally linked, the study referenced parallel work executed by Wuhan Institute of Virology scientist Dr. Shi Zhengli.

In March, Chinese researchers at the Hebei Medical University revealed they had created a mutant version of the virus vesicular stomaitis, known to infect cattle, by giving it a protein from the Ebola virus. The hamster test subjects infected with the recombinant virus suffered weight loss, ulcerated eyes, inflammation, multi-organ failure, and then all died.

Apparently, the Pentagon has no idea to what extent it has bankrolled these kinds of potentially ruinous experiments in communist China.

The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General released a partially redacted report Tuesday detailing the results of its efforts to track down the money the Pentagon has invested helping the communist Chinese enhance deadly pathogens.

The report made clear it was referring to gain-of-function experiments, referencing a definition published in the journal Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, which states, "The term 'gain-of-function' means 'to enhance a function by genetic manipulation' or 'to add a new function' and applies to much research involving genetic recombination and genetic manipulation."

The DOD Office of Inspector General sought specifically to track the amount of federal funds given either directly or indirectly by the Pentagon to:

  • the communist regime itself;
  • the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other organizations administered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences;
  • Peter Daszak's scandal-plagued and debarred EcoHealth Alliance, whose gain-of-function subcontractor was among the likely patients zero;
  • the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences; and
  • any other related lab in the Asian nation.

Of special concern was whether and where funds were spent on "research or experiments that could have reasonably resulted in the enhancement of any coronavirus, influenza, Nipah, Ebola, or other pathogen of pandemic potential or chimeric versions of such a virus or pathogen."

The conclusions of the report were damning.

The Pentagon has admitted that it has no idea to what extent it has funded the creation of deadly viruses in an adversarial nation it has identified as its "top pacing challenge" — a country whose overall biorisk management score is less than stellar.

The report noted at the outset that Army officials had identified 12 relevant research programs and that for "seven awards, a prime awardee provided funds to a subawardee or contracting research organization in China or other foreign countries for research related to potential enhancement of pathogens of pandemic potential."

The Inspector General's Office could also account for over $54 million given to EcoHealth Alliance for 13 projects executed from 2014 through 2023 but suggested that none of this funding went to China or its affiliates for gain-of-function research.

After accounting for the top of the Pentagon funding iceberg, the report indicated what lies below the surface is wholly "unknown."

Why is the answer to this question not 'zero dollars'?

Citing "significant challenges in searching for awards" due to "limitations in the DOD's systems used to track contracts and grants," the Inspector General's Office concluded, "The full extent of DOD funds provided to Chinese research laboratories or other foreign countries for research related to enhancement of pathogens of pandemic potential is unknown."

The report noted that when it came to funding Chinese gain-of-function experiments, the DOD neither used "a budget line item or any other consistent indicator, such as assistant listing codes, that makes databases of grants, contracts, and other transaction agreements easily searchable or reviewable" nor tracked "funding at the level of detail necessary" to make accurate determinations.

Apparently, the Government Accountability Office reached a comparable conclusion in a 2022 report.

Similarly troubling was the Office of the Inspector General's admission that found it impossible "to identify a single source that encompasses all pathogens of pandemic potential." In other words, the Pentagon does not appear to have an accessible authoritative list detailing just how many deadly diseases it has funded the creation of in China.

Despite the acknowledgement the Pentagon hasn't tracked its spending on the manufacture of killer viruses in China, DOD officials reassured the Inspector General's Office that "DOD organizations did not actively participate in or knowingly fund research or experiments that could have reasonably resulted in the enhancement of pathogens of pandemic potential from 2014 through 2023."

The report was not well received.

Molecular biologist Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University wrote, "Your tax dollars on fire."

Stanford University epidemiologist Dr. Jay Bhattacharya tweeted, "The Biden DOD has lost track of how much money it has given to Chinese laboratories for 'enhancing' pathogens. Why is the answer to this question not 'zero dollars'?"

"Deadly coverup. Deadly incompetence," wrote Blaze News editor in chief Matthew Peterson. "What's the difference? But this 'I dunno' may as well translate as: we (YOU) paid for the creation of covid."

Blaze News columnist Auron MacIntyre responded, "US agencies can track and censor your social media posts about the pandemic but can't track how much they spent to manufacture it."

"It wasn't the Pangolin," wrote Mike Benz, executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online. "It was the Pentagon."

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Prominent scientists demand retractions from journals that published 'unsound' articles downplaying possible COVID-19 lab origins



Former National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci, EcoHealth Alliance boss Peter Daszak, and elements of their inner circle were far from the only people in the Western medical establishment who actively downplayed the possibility that COVID-19 leaked from a lab where the likely patients zero executed dangerous experiments on coronaviruses with American taxpayer dollars.

Early in the pandemic, multiple scientific publications ran articles decrying "conspiracy theories" that suggested the virus may have originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Various authors argued, instead, that it was more likely that the virus made a cross-species leap into humans, possibly at a Chinese wet market.

Now that it's abundantly clear that the lab origin theory was all along the most likely explanation, molecular biologist Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University and dozens of other scientists are seeking accountability for perceived efforts to cure the origins narrative. They have sent open letters to the editors of the journals Science, Emerging Microbes & Infections, and Nature Medicine, requesting the retraction of "scientifically unsound papers" concerning the origins of the virus.

"Scientists have a responsibility to science and the public to point out scientific misconduct, particularly scientific fraud, when they discover it," Dr. Ebright told Blaze News. "This is especially true for scientific misconduct on matters of high public importance, like the origin of COVID-19."

Emerging Microbes & Infections

The first of the four papers of interest was published online in Emerging Microbes & Infections on Feb. 26, 2020, and authored by Shan-Lu Liu and Linda Saif of Ohio State University; Susan Weiss of the University of Pennsylvania; and Lishan Su of the University of Maryland.

The paper, entitled, "No credible evidence supporting claims of the laboratory engineering of SARS-CoV-2," stated, "There are speculations, rumours and conspiracy theories that SARS-CoV-2 is of laboratory origin. Some people have alleged that the human SARS-CoV-2 was leaked directly from a laboratory in Wuhan where a bat CoV (RaTG13) was recently reported, which shared ∼96% homology with the SARS-CoV-2."

After downplaying a number of possible lab-made culprits, including a chimeric coronavirus that could replicate in human airway cells and possibly transmit to humans, the authors concluded, "There is currently no credible evidence to support the claim that SARS-CoV-2 originated from a laboratory-engineered CoV."

The June 14 open letter to the editors of the journal stated, "The authors' and editor's private email communications, obtained through an Ohio Public Records Act request, provide compelling evidence that there is clear basis to infer the paper may be the product of scientific misconduct, up to and including fraud."

When Weiss, for instance, expressed uncertainty about how the furin cleavage site could possibly end up in the virus naturally, her colleague Liu "completely agree[d]" but signaled a greater eagerness to dispel the notion that the "furin site may be engineered."

Despite publicly suggesting there was no credible evidence of a lab origin, Weiss noted days before the publication of her paper:

Henry and I have been speculating- how can that site have appeared at S1/S2 border- I hate to think it was engineered- among the MHV strains, the cleavage site does not increaser (sic) pathogenicity while it does effect entry route (surface vs endosome). so for me the only significance of this furin site is as a marker for where the virus came from- frightening to think it may have been engineered.

Concealed doubts and persuasive counterpoints were not the only things said to have compromised the integrity of the paper.

University of North Carolina virus expert Ralph Baric has long toyed with coronaviruses. Years ahead of the pandemic, he expressed an interest in continuing to experiment with a chimeric virus that could infect human lung cells. He even shared transgenic mice with the Wuhan lab where Chinese virologist Zhengli Shi was executing radical experiments.

In violation of publisher Taylor and Francis' authorship policies, "Ralph Baric and Shi Zhengli, despite clear conflicts of interest, made substantial contributions to the manuscript but were not credited as authors or acknowledged," said the letter.

Besides secretly involving people with potential conflicts, Su, Liu and the journal's editor-in-chief Shan Lu reportedly also had "privileged information about a SARS-CoV-2 infection in a Beijing lab in 2020," but decided to keep this under wraps.

Su wrote to Lieu on Feb. 14, 2020: "Your former colleague was infected with sars2 in the lab?"

"Yes," responded Liu. "He was infected in the lab!"

"I actually am very concerned for the possibility of SARS-2 infection by lab people. It is much more contagious than SARS-1. Now every lab is interested in get a vial of virus to do drug discovery. This can potentially [be] a big issue. I don’t think most people have a clue," wrote Shan Lu.

Despite weighing in heavily on the paper, Lu elected not to be included in the coauthorship, stating in a Feb. 12, 2020, message, "I definitely will not be an author as you guys did everything. It can also keep things somewhat independent as the editor."

Extra to collapsing the distance between author and editor, Lu subsequently admitted he accepted the paper with "basically no review."

— (@)

"Taken together, the authors' and editor's private communications indicate the paper is a product of scientific misconduct, up to and including fraud, by the authors and by the Editor-in-Chief of Emerging Microbes & Infections, Shan Lu," said the open letter. "Now that these documents have come to light, we urge Emerging Microbes & Infections to issue an Expression of Editorial Concern for this paper and to initiate a retraction process."

Taylor and Francis, the publisher of the journal, said in a statement to Blaze News, "We can confirm that the Editor of the journal forwarded the open letter to Taylor & Francis on 14th June and that our Publishing Ethics & Integrity team are investigating the concerns raised, in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics guidelines and our Editorial Policies."

Nature Medicine

The journal Nature Medicine published the controversial paper "The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2" on March 17, 2020, which Fauci used on multiple occasions to suggest to the American public that COVID-19 was not a lab leak but rather an animal virus that jumped to a human.

Blaze News previously reported that despite privately discussing the prospect that the natural-origins theory was rubbish, the paper's four official authors — Kristian Andersen, W. Ian Lipkin, Edward Holmes, and Robert Garry — concluded, "We do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible."

Andersen, a Danish evolutionary biologist and Scripps Research Institute immunology professor, was especially doubtful in private about the conclusion he gave his name to.

On Jan. 31, 2020, Andersen wrote to Fauci, "You have to look very closely at the genome to see features that are potentially engineered. ... I should mention that after discussions earlier today, Eddie [Holmes], Bob [Garry], Mike [Farzan], and myself all find the genome to be inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory."

On Feb. 8, Andersen stated, "Passage of SARS-like CoVs have been ongoing for several years, and more specifically in Wuhan under BSL-2 conditions. ... The fact that Wuhan became the epicenter of the ongoing epidemic caused by nCoV is likely an unfortunate coincidence, but it raises questions that would be wrong to dismiss out of hand. Our main work over the last couple of weeks has been focused on trying to disprove any type of lab theory, but we are at a crossroad where the scientific evidence isn't conclusive enough to say that we have high confidence in any of the three main theories considered."

Andersen also expressed concern about a paper penned by Ralph Baric and Zhengli Shi concerning the apparent insertion of furin cleavage sites into SARS, which he and his colleagues figured for a "how-to-manual for building the Wuhan coronavirus in a laboratory."

Last month, Ebright and five others wrote to Joao Montiero, the chief editor of Nature Medicine, requesting a retraction. They noted that documentation obtained through public records requests along with congressional testimony from Andersen and Garry "provide conclusive evidence of misconduct."

The letter does not mention Fauci's alleged involvement in the development of the paper but instead World Health Organization scientist Jeremy Farrar's unacknowledged role in the "paper's development, including its prompting, organizing, editing, and approval."

'It is imperative that this misleading and damaging product of scientific misconduct be removed from the scientific literature.'

"This omission of a significant role played by the head of a funding agency, allegedly to maintain his 'independence,' represents a serious breach of publishing ethics that completely undermines the credibility of the journal and calls into question the motivation behind the paper," said the letter. "The classification of the paper as an 'opinion' rather than a 'research article' further exacerbates the issue, as the authors' intentional withholding of Farrar's involvement damages public trust in the editorial process."

Ebright and scores of other scientists pressed Nature Medicine last year for a retraction as well, noting in an open letter dated July 26, 2023, "It is imperative that this misleading and damaging product of scientific misconduct be removed from the scientific literature. We, as STEM and STEM-policy professionals, call upon Nature Medicine to publish an expression of editorial concern for the paper and to begin a process of withdrawal or retraction of the paper."

Blaze News reached out to Montiero for comment, but he did not respond by deadline.

Science

Ebright, Stanford University epidemiologist Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, and dozens of other scientists signed another open letter on June 14 to the editors of the journal Science with regards to two papers: "The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic," and "The molecular epidemiology of multiple zoonotic origins of SARS-CoV-2," both of which named Jonathan Pekar of the University of California, San Diego, as an author along with Andersen, Holmes, Garry, evolutionary biologist Andrew Rambaut, and Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona.

Blurbs leading into the papers, which were both largely funded by Fauci's NIAID — whose parent agency supported and financed research at the Wuhan lab — and published on July 26, 2022, stated, "The precise events surrounding virus spillover will always be clouded, but all of the circumstantial evidence so far points to more than one zoonotic event occurring in Huanan market in Wuhan, China, likely during November–December 2019."

According to the scientists seeking retractions, the analyses and the premises of "Worobey et al. 2022 and Pekar et al. 2022 are unsound," and the papers may be "products of scientific misconduct, up to and including scientific fraud."

"Phylogenomic evidence, epidemiological evidence, and documentary evidence all indicate that SARS-CoV-2 entered humans in July-November 2019," says the letter. "Arguments based on data for the Huanan Seafood Market on or after mid- to late December 2019 — as in Worobey et al. 2022 and Pekar et al. 2022 — cannot, even in principle, shed light on spillover into humans that occurred one to five months earlier, in July-November, 2019."

— (@)

The open letter noted that Andersen, Garry, Holmes, and others knew full well that the "premises and conclusions of their paper were invalid at the time the paper was drafted."

A spokesman for American Association for the Advancement of Science, the publisher of the Science family of journals, confirmed to Blaze News that it had received the letter.

"We follow COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) processes to address any concerns raised on published papers and are doing so here," said the spokesman.

The AAAS spokesman noted in a subsequent email, "We will follow up when we make a final decision."

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'NIAID cannot be trusted': Fauci's agency planned to make monkeypox more deadly, says congressional report



The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under Anthony Fauci funded deadly gain-of-function research on coronaviruses at the likely epicenter of the pandemic. Although millions of Americans died from COVID-19, the NIAID apparently did not learn its lesson.

According to congressional investigators, the NIAID received approval to execute radical gain-of-function experiments on MPXV, the virus that causes monkeypox.

Monkeypox is endemic in various African regions but made a global play in April 2022. The New England Journal of Medicine indicated on the basis of diagnoses in 16 countries that 98% of the persons infected with the virus were homosexual.

Those infected with monkeypox often experience a painful rash that can look like pimples or blisters, respiratory problems, exhaustion, fever, swollen lymph nodes, and chills. Like COVID-19, monkeypox can be spread via respiratory droplets, through "direct contact with a rash or sores of someone who has the virus," and through "contact with clothing, bedding, and other items used by a person" with the virus.

While it's unclear what nightmarish symptoms a lab-engineered version of monkeypox could produce, it's clear that some of Fauci's people were eager to find out.

Over the past two years, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce — which has jurisdiction over public health agencies — has been looking into a particular research project that was "planned and/or conducted" at the NIAID prior to Fauci's retirement.

Committee members were alerted to the experiment by a Sept. 15, 2022, interview in Science magazine, in which Dr. Bernard Moss, a NIAID pox virologist, revealed that his team was working on endowing a West African variant of monkeypox responsible for the global outbreak at the time, "clade 2," with genes from a far more deadly variant, "clade 1."

Whereas clade 2 has roughly a 1% mortality rate, clade 2 reportedly has a mortality rate ranging from 10%-15%.

Congressional investigators noted that Moss' admission troubled some of his peers.

Epidemiologist Thomas Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, told the magazine the following month that if a more powerful version of the outbreak strain ever escaped the NIAID lab, it could trigger an "epidemic with substantially more lethality."

The committee noted in an interim staff report Tuesday, "If the experiment transferred genes from clade IIb MPXV — which caused the 2022-2023 mpox epidemic — into clade I virus, the resulting chimeric virus could have a reproductive number (R₀) of 1.10 to 2.40 coupled with a case fatality rate of 10 – 15 percent in the unvaccinated."

According to the interim report, the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, and the NIAID "repeatedly obstructed and misled" the committee about the experiment referenced by Moss in Science.

'NIAID cannot be trusted to oversee its own research of pathogens responsibly.'

Whereas HHS and the NIH denied that that the experiment(s) had been proposed, planned, approved, or conducted, the committee noted that internal NIH documents "show this experiment was formally proposed and received approval before the NIH's Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) on June 30, 2015."

HHS Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Melanie Egorin confirmed in a March 19 letter to the committee that the experiment was greenlit.

The committee has been unable to confirm whether or not the dangerous experiment actually took place but indicated there was a window of time between June 2015 and May 2023 when researchers could have done so.

In the first three years, there were reportedly no requirements imposed on the experiment. In 2018, scientists were asked only to notify the NIH's IBC when getting ready to make clade 2 more potent.

Science indicated that at the very least, part of the experiment was conducted. Researchers moved genes from clade 2 to clade 1.

"The deliberate, prolonged effort to deceive the Committee is unacceptable and potentially criminal," said the interim report. "HHS, the NIH, and NIAID continue to insist the GOFROC experiment transferring material from clade I into clade II was never conducted, despite being approved for a period of over eight years. However, HHS has repeatedly refuse to produce any documents to corroborate this claim."

The report suggested that the refusal to cough up evidence might suggest "that the information not produced was unfavorable" and that the HHS is effectively lying.

Despite painting HHS as obstructionist, the report emphasized that the "NIAID is the agency that bears the most responsibility for misleading the Committee."

The primary conclusion drawn at this point in the investigation is that NIAID cannot be trusted to oversee its own research of pathogens responsibly. It cannot be trusted to determine whether an experiment on a potential pandemic pathogen or enhanced potential pandemic pathogen poses unacceptable biosafety risk or a serious public health threat. Lastly, NIAID cannot be trusted to honestly communicate with Congress and the public about controversial GOFROC experiments.

Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) said of the report, "In order to start rebuilding trust in our government health agency guidance, agencies like the NIH must be honest and transparent with Congress and the American people."

"This report demonstrates a disturbing lack of judgment and accountability from HHS, the NIH, and particularly, NIAID. It is unacceptable and demonstrates the clear need for reform," added Rodgers.

Justin Goodman, senior vice president of the White Coat Waste Project — a watchdog that helped expose EcoHealth Alliance's and Fauci's ties to the gain-of-function experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology — told Blaze News, "These treacherous monkeypox gain-of-function experiments are the latest example of Fauci's rampant waste, fraud, and abuse and disregard for taxpayers and lawmakers."

"Even though Fauci is gone from government, his atrocious animal testing legacy is alive and well, and we're working with Republicans and Democrats to cut NIH's reckless spending," continued Goodman. "The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness."

An HHS spokesman said in a statement, "The committee is looking for an issue where there isn't one. HHS and its divisions, including NIH, follow strict biosafety measures as our scientists work to better understand and protect the public from infectious diseases — like mpox."

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KEY PLAYERS in the Covid Cover-Up | Glenn Beck Chalkboard Breakdown

KEY PLAYERS in the Covid Cover-Up | Glenn Beck Chalkboard Breakdown

Elon Musk demands Anthony Fauci be prosecuted after NIH admits to funding gain-of-function research at Wuhan lab



Elon Musk demanded the prosecution of Dr. Anthony Fauci after a National Institutes of Health official confessed that U.S. taxpayer funds were used for risky gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China. The alarming admission by the top NIH bureaucrat directly contradicts sworn testimony that Fauci made when questioned by Congress.

On Thursday, acting NIH Director and current Principal Deputy Director Dr. Lawrence Tabak was questioned during a hearing by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. The hearing had a mission to compel Tabak to "explain numerous inconsistencies between the public and private testimonies of NIH employees and EcoHealth President, Dr. Peter Daszak."

Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) asked Tabak about the NIH's role in risky gain-of-function research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through the Manhattan-based EcoHealth Alliance – the nonprofit organization that was involved in controversial coronavirus experiments.

Lesko inquired, "Dr. Tabak, did NIH fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through EcoHealth?"

Tabak replied, "It depends on your definition of gain-of-function research. If you’re speaking about the generic term, yes, we did."

The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic declared, "Dr. Tabak offered substantial evidence that Dr. Daszak purposefully misled both the NIH and the Select Subcommittee about EcoHealth’s efforts to comply with grant procedures."

Did the NIH Fund Gain-of-Function Research in Wuhan? 🤔 @SenRandPaul pic.twitter.com/arlId1Vfcj
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) May 16, 2024

Tabak's response also contradicts Fauci's repeated claims that there was no gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab funded by the NIH.

As Blaze News previously reported, Fauci clashed with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) during a fiery confrontation before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in May 2021.

Paul asked Fauci, "Dr. Fauci, do you still support funding of the NIH funding of the lab in Wuhan?"

Fauci answered, "Sen. Paul, with all due respect, you are entirely, entirely and completely incorrect. The NIH has not ever, and does not now, fund 'gain of function research' in the Wuhan Institute."

In July 2021, Paul pressed Fauci about the NIH using taxpayer money to fund gain-of-research experiments at the Wuhan lab.

Paul asked, "Dr. Fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11, where you claimed that the NIH never funded gain-of-function research?"

Fauci replied, "Sen. Paul, I have never lied before the Congress. And I do not retract that statement."

Fauci, now 83, then attacked Paul by saying, "You don't know what you're talking about, quite frankly."

On Wednesday, Paul told Newsmax, "So, you have this bureaucrat Anthony Fauci in charge of the money spigot who is not really a researcher in this, but saying adamantly that it wasn't gain-of-function. Why does he say that? Because he wants to escape responsibility for having funded research and for having made the terrible decision to fund research that led to a pandemic that killed millions of people."

Dr. Paul Questions Dr. Fauci on Wuhan Lab and Gain of Function Research - May 11, 2021 www.youtube.com

On Friday, Elon Musk wrote on the X social media platform: "Prosecute/Fauci."

U.S. Code Section 1621 states that anyone who "willfully and contrary to such oath states or subscribes any material matter which he does not believe to be true" is guilty of perjury and shall be fined or imprisoned up to five years, or both. The statute of limitations for perjury is five years from the time the statement was made.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines gain-of-function research as:

Studies, or research that improves the ability of a pathogen to cause disease, help define the fundamental nature of human-pathogen interactions, thereby enabling assessment of the pandemic potential of emerging infectious agents, informing public health and preparedness efforts, and furthering medical countermeasure development.

In October 2014, the Obama administration halted all federal funding for risky gain-of-function studies.

Former President Barack Obama's White House announced a "pause" to "assess the potential risks and benefits associated with a subset of life sciences research known as 'gain-of-function' studies."

The NIH announced in December 2017 – when Donald Trump was president – that it was lifting the funding pause on gain-of-function experiments.

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HHS Strips EcoHealth Alliance Of Federal Funds Over Reckless Coronavirus Research

The federal gov't suspended federal funding for EcoHealth Alliance over its reckless handling of coronavirus research in Wuhan, China.

5 Takeaways From Peter Daszak’s Testimony On U.S.-Funded Coronavirus Research

Here are the five biggest takeaways from Peter Daszak's testimony about EcoHealth Alliance's funding of gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China.

Rand Paul claims '15 US agencies' knew about Wuhan’s development of COVID-19 and did NOTHING



Apparently, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) did a little digging into the COVID-19 pandemic and what he found was that “15 U.S. agencies knew full well that the Wuhan lab was trying to create a virus like COVID-19 in 2018, and they did nothing,” reports Pat Gray.

“If that’s true — and certainly it is — somebody’s head needs to roll, somebody needs to go to prison over this,” he tells Jeffy, adding that “that someone is Anthony Fauci.”

“How many millions of people died because nobody said anything, nobody did anything about it?” Pat asks.

Of course, the left is “trying to blame those deaths on Donald Trump because he didn’t act supposedly the way they wanted him to,” and yet “these people did nothing” even though “they knew about [the virus’ development] the whole time.”

“These officials, according to Rand Paul, knew that the Chinese lab was proposing to create a COVID-19 like virus, and not one of them revealed that scheme to the public,” reads Pat. “In fact, 15 agencies with the knowledge of that project have continuously refused to release any information concerning this alarming and dangerous research.”

Further, “Government officials representing at least 15 federal agencies were briefed on a project proposed by Peter Daszak — Ecohealth Alliance head and the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” which “proposed to insert furin cleavage sites into a coronavirus to create a novel chimeric virus that would’ve been shockingly similar to the COVID-19 virus.”

“All technical stuff aside,” says Pat, “they knew about it, they did nothing, and nothing is going to happen to anyone — and we all know it.”

To learn more about Fauci’s likely role in the scandal, watch the clip below.


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Senator reveals what’s going on behind the scenes of the border crisis



Democrats love to cite a slew of humanitarian reasons to justify their open border policies, such as providing asylum for those fleeing poverty, war, and violence. But according to Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, “Immigration is about power politics” and “has nothing to do with the individuals” migrating here.

“If you talk to these people” and ask if they “care about the little kids coming across [or] what might happen to teenage girls coming across, they don't care about that. All they care about is votes; their whole goal is to take Texas,” Paul tells Dave Rubin.

Even the new border bill, which proposes allowing up to 5,000 migrants into the country per day (1.8 million per year) before any action is taken, is proof of this.

“After 1.8 million a year, the rules aren't very strong. They give the discretion to [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas],” who just barely escaped impeachment yesterday, Paul explains.

“Meanwhile, the Biden campaign is cutting the razor wire and removing the cargo containers that are essentially a wall on the border,” so “we're going to negotiate with them and trust them to use new power when they're right now using their [current] power to disrupt the border wall?”

“I'm actually not against immigration; I'm actually for more lawful immigration,” Paul continues, “but they need to be these little narrow bills, but instead they say, ‘We'll increase employment- based or work-based visas but only if you give the 18 million people already here the right to vote.”

“I'm pretty open on this issue; I would give work permits even to those who came here illegally ... but I'm not giving them the right to vote.” He continues, “So, we've stayed at a standstill for the 12 years I've been here. No immigration changes have happened ... none of it happens because the Democrats say, ‘All or nothing.”’

“What do you think the Democrats’ intentions are?” asks Dave.

“All they care about is votes,” especially in Texas, Paul explains. “The only way they take Texas is to legalize a couple of million people here illegally and let them vote.”

To hear the full conversation, watch the clip below.


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