Fauci Was Wrong When He Said NIH Didn’t Fund Gain of Function Research in China: Officials
Dr. Anthony Fauci’s claim rebutted by government employees.
Dr. Anthony Fauci’s claim that the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) did not fund a certain type of research in China was wrong, multiple government officials said in newly released interviews.
Gain-of-function research is commonly known as research that increases a function of a pathogen, such as its transmissibility.
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11/14/2023
That definition was removed on the same day as the NIH disclosure.
“It certainly is an example of generic ‘gain-of-function,’” Dr. Tabak said.
The experiment disclosed by the NIH was funded by money sent to WIV through the U.S.-based nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance.
The evidence obtained by the subcommittee “confirms that EcoHealth facilitated gain-of-function research at the WIV during the fifth year it received funding from the NIH,” the subcommittee said in a statement.
Dr. Fauci, the former head of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also testified to the panel. While the full transcript of that testimony has not been released, portions released Wednesday showed him being confronted on the matter.
He said that when he told Dr. Paul that the NIH never funded gain-of-function research, he was “referring specially to the operative definition of ‘gain-of-function’ at the time, which is the P3CO framework.”
The framework excluded some gain-of-function research, focusing primarily on “potential pandemic pathogens,” or pathogens deemed “likely highly transmissible and likely capable of wide and uncontrollable spread in human populations” and “likely highly virulent and likely to cause significant morbidity and/or mortality in humans.”
Experiments enhancing such pathogens increased their transmissibility and/or virulence, according to the framework.
The NIH disclosure later in 2021 revealed that a modified bat coronavirus made mice sicker than the original virus, and killed more mice.
“The experiment that EcoHealth conducted by creating a chimera increased the pathogenicity of the underlying virus. Is that fair?” Dr. Fauci was asked by the House subcommittee more recently.
He said yes but that the virus being tested was not a potential pandemic pathogen.
When confronted with the statements by Drs. Auchincloss and Tabak, Dr. Fauci still refused to acknowledge the testing met the general gain-of-function definition.
“Because then, if I say yes, then, ‘Ah, yes, he says it was gain-of-function,’” he said.
Dr. Fauci, who stepped down as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in late 2022, is scheduled to appear at a public hearing held by the subcommittee on June 3.
