Dr. Anthony Fauci previously admitted that it was a "fact" that scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were known to be conducting "gain-of-function experiments" on bat viruses, according to a newly surfaced email.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released an email from Fauci dated Feb. 1, 2020. The email was sent to Robert Kadlec (then assistant secretary of Health and Human Services), Lawrence Kerr (then director of the Office of Pandemics and Emerging Threats within the HHS), Brian Harrison (HHS chief of staff), and Garrett Grigsby (then director of Office of Global Affairs Department of the HHS).

Fauci began the email by discussing a meeting with Jeremy Farrar – the director of the Wellcome Trust, an influential global charitable foundation focused on medical research. The meeting also included "highly credible scientists" and then-National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins.

Fauci said the scientists were "concerned about the fact that upon viewing the sequences of several isolates of the nCoV, there were mutations in the virus that would be most unusual to have evolved naturally in the bats and that there was a suspicion that this mutation was intentionally inserted."

"The suspicion was heightened by the fact that scientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments to determine the molecular mechanisms associated with bat viruses adapting to human infection, and the outbreak originated in Wuhan," Fauci wrote.

"Upon considerable discussion, some of the scientists felt more strongly about this possibility, but two others felt differently," said Fauci – who previously served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "They felt that it was entirely conceivable that this could have evolved naturally even though these mutations have never been seen in a bat virus before."

Fauci continued, "The reasons for each side of the argument are too complicated to bother you with."

The former chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden concluded that a large "internationally credible organization," especially the World Health Organization, should investigate the Wuhan lab-leak theory. Fauci said Farrar and Collins would contact Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO.

Fauci added, "They pass no judgment at all at this point and feel that the group's mandate should be: 'What are the evolutionary origins of 2019-nCov, important for future risk assessment and understanding of animal/human coronaviruses.'"

Fauci claimed, "In this way, there is no assumption of foul play or guilt on anyone's part and merely an intense scientific look at the evolutionary origins of this virus. Where that leads remains to be seen."

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) commented on Fauci's exposed email: "In case you needed any more proof Fauci orchestrated a cover-up… Now ask yourself why…"

Paul has clashed often with Fauci about NIH-funded gain-of-function experiments conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

During a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions regarding the pandemic response in May 2021, Fauci responded to questioning by the Republican senator from Kentucky, "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."

During a July 2021 Senate Health Committee hearing on the federal government's COVID-19 response, Paul challenged Fauci, "Dr. Fauci, as you are aware, it is a crime to lie to Congress. On your last trip to our committee on May 11, you stated that the NIH 'has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.'"

Paul mentioned the relationship between Dr. Shi, a bat coronavirus expert from the Wuhan lab, and the EcoHealth Alliance that had received funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Paul said, "And yet, gain-of-function research was done entirely in the Wuhan Institute by Dr. Shi and was funded by the NIH."

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

Fauci has pushed the zoonotic origin theory throughout the pandemic, while dismissing the possibility of a lab leak as a "conspiracy theory."

In January 2020, Kristian Andersen – a virologist at Scripps Department of Immunology and Microbiology – wrote Fauci an email noting that he and three other scientists "all find the genome inconsistent with evolutionary theory" of the coronavirus origin.

In March 2020, a group of scientists published a letter titled: "The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2." Fauci approved and often cited the letter, which condemned the "conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin," and the paper declared, "We do not believe any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible."

This week, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic proclaimed that the letter was a "cover-up" and the authors believed that accepting the lab-leak theory would cause "unnecessary harm to science in general and science in China in particular."

In 2016, health officials at the NIH and NIAID expressed concern about gain-of-function experiments at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to surfaced government emails.

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