Fauci was wrong when he said the NIH didn’t fund gain-of-function research in China | Anthony Fauci | Dr Anthony Fauci | COVID-19

Article translated and adapted from English, originally published by the American headquarters of the Epoch Times.

Dr. Anthony Fauci’s claim that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) did not fund a certain type of investigation into China was wrong, several government officials said in recently released interviews.

Fauci he said, while under oath in May 2021, that the NIH “never and has not funded gain-of-function research at” the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). He kept this position when confronted by Senator Rand Paul a month later.

Gain-of-function research is commonly known as research that increases a function of a pathogen, such as its transmissibility.

A US-funded experiment carried out at the WIV (Wuhan Institute of Virology) before the COVID-19 pandemic made the bat coronavirus more virulent, the NIH said released in October 2021.

Hugh Auchincloss, Fauci’s longtime advisor, said to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic that the common definition of gain of function encompasses “any research that assigns a new attribute to a biological agent,” according to a portion of one of the newly released interview transcripts.

When Dr. Fauci testified to Congress, the NIH defined gain-of-function research as research “that modifies a biological agent in a way that confers new or improved activity on that agent.”

This definition was removed on the same day as the NIH release.

Dr. Lawrence Tabak, another longtime NIH employee, also said legislators that the definition covers the experiment described in the NIH disclosure.

“It’s certainly an example of a generic ‘gain of function,’” Tabak said.

The experiment released by the NIH was funded by money sent to WIV through EcoHealth Alliance, a US-based nonprofit organization.

Evidence obtained by the subcommittee “confirms that EcoHealth facilitated gain-of-function research at WIV during the fifth year it received NIH funding,” the subcommittee said in a statement.

In a report In its investigation into the grant, the subcommittee noted that “Dr.Fauci’s testimony to Senator Paul misled the public regarding NIH funding for gain-of-function research at WIV.”

Fauci, former head of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also testified before the jury. Although the full transcript of this testimony has not been released, excerpts released on May 1 show Fauci being confronted about the matter.

Anthony Fauci explained that when he told Dr. Paul that the NIH had never funded gain-of-function research, he was “especially referring to the operational definition of ‘gain-of-function’ at the time, which is the P3CO framework.”

The Framework to Guide Funding Decisions about Proposed Research Involving Enhanced Potential Pandemic Pathogens, or the P3CO structurewas introduced in 2017 when US authorities lifted a pause on funding gain-of-function experiments involving a certain virus.

The framework excluded some gain-of-function research, focusing primarily on “potential pandemic pathogens” or pathogens considered “likely to be highly transmissible and likely capable of widespread and uncontrollable dissemination in human populations” and “likely to be highly virulent and likely to cause significant morbidity ”. and/or mortality in humans.”

Experiments that improved these pathogens increased their transmissibility and/or virulence, according to the table.

Dr. Paul described the tests done at WIV as being gain-of-function and askedFauci, whose agency awarded the grant to EcoHealth that sent some money to the lab, whether he still supported funding such research.

“With all due respect, you are completely wrong – the NIH has never and does not fund gain-of-function research at that institute,” replied Dr.

The NIH release in late 2021 revealed that a modified bat coronavirus made mice sicker than the original virus and killed more mice.

“The experiment EcoHealth conducted by creating a mutated virus increased the pathogenicity of the underlying virus. And that?” Fauci was questioned by the House subcommittee most recently.

He said yes, but that the virus tested was not a potential pandemic pathogen.

When confronted with Dr. Auchincloss and Tabak’s statements, Dr. Fauci still refused to acknowledge that the tests met the general definition of gain of function.

“Because then if I say yes, then you’ll say, ‘Oh yeah, he says it was gain of function, so he lied,’” he said.

Fauci, who stepped down as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the end of 2022, is scheduled to appear at a public hearing held by the subcommittee on June 3.

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