When we compare the definition of Enhanced Potential Pandemic Pathogen in the Research Framework, to the NIH Letter’s description of the research conducted, the only conclusion one can reach is that the Framework was violated, and Fauci’s statements to the contrary are lies.
For those who have been following, I have been working overtime over the last several days, fact-checking Fauci’s falsehoods and explaining some of the ways my six months of in-depth reporting on the origins of COVID-19, have proven his assertions to be, well, total garbage. Then again, most of Fauci’s claims have been a various shade of misinformation for what appears to be the better part of the last several years. My author page will show that I’ve made it a profession of dispelling many falsehoods about COVID-19.
Fauci’s latest defense is now to suggest that the research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology didn’t ever rise to the level described as gain-of-function. Fauci said to George Stephanopolous on Sunday that he lied when he suggested that a new NIH Letter proved his lies.
“The funding at the Wuhan Institute was to be able to determine what is out there in the environment, in bat viruses in China. And the research was very strictly under what we call a framework of oversight of the type of research,” Fauci said.
“And under those conditions which we have explained very, very clearly, does not constitute research of gain of function of concern. While there are some who might interpret it this way, if you examine the context in which the guidance was given, you will see that that is not true. It is my honor to disagree with Senator Paul. It is incorrect to say that Congress was misled or lied about. It’s just not correct,” he added.”
Fauci’s statement refers to a framework released by the Department of Health and Human Services in 2017. That framework specifically lays out instances under which research involving what they call “Enhanced Potential Pandemic Pathogens” (enhanced PPPs) must be reported to the government and must face additional biosafety requirements.
The following are the definitions of enhanced PPPs:
“A PPP resulting from the enhancement of the transmissibility and/or virulence of a pathogen. Enhanced PPPs do not include naturally occurring pathogens that are circulating in or have been recovered from nature, regardless of their pandemic potential.”
Now, in order to understand why Fauci’s denial can’t coexist with reason, logic, and other known facts, we must take a look at the wording that was used in the letter the NIH sent Representative Comer.
“The limited experiment described in the final progress report provided by EcoHealth Alliance was testing if spike proteins from naturally occurring bat coronaviruses circulating in China were capable of binding to the human ACE2 receptor in a mouse model. All other aspects of the mice, including the immune system, remained unchanged.”
These are just three points to be aware of. They were not supposed to use any naturally occurring viruses. The second reason is that their mice had been modified to make them humane, which suggests that they would have spread the virus to humans. Clearly, they had been modified, or there would be no point in stating that “all other aspects..remained unchanged.” Lastly, the ACE2 receptor is the same receptor SARS-CoV-2 binds to in human cells. This letter goes on:
“In this limited experiment, laboratory mice infected with the SHC014 WIV 1 bat coronavirus became sicker than those infected with WIV1 bat coronavirus. It was unexpected that this result came about, which is something scientists sometimes find surprising. Regardless, the viruses being studied under this grant were genetically very distant from SARS-CoV-2.”
So again, enhanced PPPs are viruses that 1) don’t occur in nature, 2) which can infect humans, and 3) have been Enhanced for transmittibility and virulence. Based on that definition and the explanation in the NIH letter, Fauci’s statements aren’t just misleading; they are total and complete hogwash.
Here’s why.
The first is the fact that SHC014 (and WIV1) exist naturally, but the genetically engineered hybrid, SHC014/WIV1, doesn’t. This synthetic creation was created in the lab. This virus could infect humanized mice, and so it infected them. The third was that the synthesized virus caused more illness in mice than either SHC014 or WIV1, which do not infect humans. Regardless of Fauci’s and the NIH’s arguments on whether or not it is intentional, this new virus is absolutely and unequivocally, outside of the framework established by the HHS. Fauci and anyone at the NIH would lie flat out to claim that the virus is in the HHS framework.
What is also alarming from this letter is the NIH’s objections to the results of the research but not that the research was outside of the proposed grant funding. Keep in mind that the grant was awarded for studying naturally occurring bat virus species and not enhanced potential pandemic pathogens. Although it sounds like the results were unexpected, you should remember that SHC014 has been used in gain-of function experiments. Here’s yesterday’s article:
“Dr. Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina, often referred to as the “godfather of gain-of-function,” was researching coronaviruses, including bat coronaviruses. His team was able to work with SHC014, which is a bat coronavirus. Baric and his group manipulated the SARS virus backbone to make SHC014’s surface proteins. This created a new virus, SHC014–MA15. It was discovered that this new virus could infect human epithelial blood vessels cells. Even more alarming is that the genetics were provided by and some of the research for this experiment was conducted at… you guessed it… the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
This research also led to the funding suspension and the establishment of the HHS Viral Research Framework. While Ralph Baric’s research used SARS as a backbone for SHC014, the subject research of the NIH Letter – the research Peter Daszak and the Bat Lady, Dr. Shi, performed on bat coronaviruses – used WIV1 as a backbone for SHC014. Both of these experiments involved gain-of function.
In summary, in order to believe Fauci’s (and the NIH’s) claims, we would have to ignore the Framework’s definition of Enhanced PPP, ignore that the research lab created a new virus that is not found in nature, and ignore that that new virus was more transmissible and virulent than either of the base viruses it came from. We would also have to ignore that the research conducted was identical to research on the same virus from 2014 that was labeled gain-of-function and the fact that that very research led to the creation of the Framework, to which Fauci says the new research doesn’t apply.
Fauci’s not even attempting to obfuscate or cleverly word answers anymore; he’s blatantly lying. These articles can be used to remind us of all the things we know when the house comes crumbling down.
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