NIH official finally admits U.S. taxpayers funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan
National Institutes of Health (NIH) principal deputy director Lawrence Tabak admitted to Congress Thursday that US taxpayers funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China in the months and years before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Dr. Tabak,” asked Rep. Debbie Lesko of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, “did NIH fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through [Manhattan-based nonprofit] EcoHealth [Alliance]?”
“It depends on your definition of gain-of-function research,” Tabak answered. “If you’re speaking about the generic term, yes, we did.”
The response comes after more than four years of evasions from federal public health officials — including Tabak himself and former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director Dr. Anthony Fauci — about the controversial research practice that modifies viruses to make them more infectious.
In July 2023, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) barred the Wuhan Institute of Virology from receiving federal grants for the next 10 years.
EcoHealth Alliance, whose mission statement declares it is “working to prevent pandemics,” had all of its grant funding pulled by HHS for the next three years on Tuesday.
Musk demands charges against Anthony Fauci after NIH comes clean
Elon Musk demanded the arrest and prosecution of Dr. Anthony Fauci on Friday after the National Institutes of Health came clean to Congress and admitted to funding risky “gain-of-function” research in Wuhan, China, prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic there.
“Prosecute/Fauci,” the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of social media network X tweeted, sharing The Post’s Friday front page bearing a photo of Fauci and the headline “SICK LIES.”
NIH principal deputy director Lawrence Tabak confessed Thursday at a House subcommittee hearing that the US government had indeed funded dangerous research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which modified bat coronaviruses shortly before the outbreak began in late 2019.
Tabak’s answer conflicts with Fauci’s several fiery denials.
“The NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Fauci, now 83, testified to Congress in May 2021.
Musk did not specify what criminal charges Fauci should face, though perjury and lying to Congress are obvious options and have been recommended by congressional Republicans.
Both offences carry up to five years in prison and generally have five-year statutes of limitations.
It’s unclear if other potential charges could stem from the alleged cover-up of US funding for the Chinese labs suspected of unleashing the lethal respiratory virus, which has killed at least 1,190,546 US residents, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, in addition to causing enormous economic, social and educational damage across the world.
Fauci served as President Biden’s chief medical adviser in 2021 and 2022 after presenting himself in the early phase of the pandemic as a beacon of reason and good health guidance, though allies of former President Donald Trump noted his often inconsistent tips, including on mask-wearing.
The doctor also led NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 through the end of 2022.
Documents published in late 2021 by the Intercept revealed that the EcoHealth Alliance used grants from Fauci’s agency to fund Wuhan Institute of Virology experiments that modified three bat coronaviruses distinct from COVID-19.
The research discovered the viruses became much more infectious among “humanised” mice when human-type receptors were added to them.
The origins of COVID-19 remain a mystery due to the Chinese government’s refusal to allow an independent international investigation.
