Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) appeared on "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo and alleged a whistleblower revealed that at least 15 government agencies were aware that gain-of-function research on viruses was being conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China as far back as 2018.
BARTIROMO: You are out with a report which shows that 15—at least—15 federal agencies knew that gain-of-function research was being done in the Wuhan lab, since what, 2018?
SEN. PAUL: We know this because a whistleblower revealed it. Nobody in the administration has told us anything. We've gotten all of our information from the whistleblower.
But we now know it wasn't just one agency that China was approaching. China made a presentation—or an American representative, Peter Daszak, made a representation —to 15 agencies about creating a virus that, guess what, looks suspiciously like COVID-19 and looks like no other virus in nature from that family. They were working on this and presented it to 15 agencies.
Daszak, the scientist RedState's Scott Hounsell described as "a real-life Bond villain" for his work weaponizing coronaviruses, is set to publicly testify before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on May 1.
See:
COVID-19 Mastermind and Lab Leak Denier Dr. Peter Daszak to Testify Before Congress on May 1
Paul continued, charging that (almost) no one in government came forward with this crucial information:
And in 2020, when they saw COVID-19, they should have all been calling and raising the alarm and saying, my goodness, we saw this two years ago. We knew the Chinese were doing this; lo and behold, they did it. Nobody in government came forward. Not one person--I take that back, a brave marine, a Lieutenant Colonel, came forward and gave us that information, or today we would still not know any of this.
Watch:
At least 15 fed agencies knew from the beginning of the pandemic that EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology were seeking fed funding in 2018 to create a virus genetically very similar to COVID. Disturbingly, not one of these 15 agencies spoke up to warn us… pic.twitter.com/rUw3rCDiXQ
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) April 14, 2024
Paul also wrote an op-ed Tuesday with more details about what the whistleblower revealed.
Government officials representing at least 15 federal agencies were briefed on a project proposed by Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
This project, the DEFUSE project, proposed to insert a furin cleavage site into a coronavirus to create a novel chimeric virus that would have been shockingly similar to the COVID-19 virus.
For years, I have been fighting to obtain records from dozens of federal agencies relating to the origins of COVID-19 and the DEFUSE project. Under duress, the administration finally released documents that show that the DEFUSE project was pitched to at least 15 agencies in January 2018.
What does this mean?
It means that at least 15 federal agencies knew from the beginning of the pandemic that EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology were seeking federal funding in 2018 to create a virus genetically very similar if not identical to COVID-19. [Bolding mine.]
Later on in the piece, Paul blasted—as he often does—former Chief Medical Advisor to the president, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Did NIAID [the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases] warn us? Did Anthony Fauci warn us? No! All lips remained sealed.
Paul cautioned that no one is likely to face any consequences for their malfeasance, but he said we must not let it happen again:
…all evidence suggests COVID-19 was a laboratory-enhanced virus purposefully adapted for human transmission.
Shame on all those who covered up the DEFUSE project! Of course, they all should be punished but likely won’t. At the very least, though, the perpetrators should be made to admit the truth and Congress should finally put in place sufficient oversight to make sure dangerous gain of function experiments are sufficiently vetted and, if necessary, prevented.
Rand Paul has been one of the nation’s most tenacious fighters in trying to nail down the origins of the COVID virus, while too many of our leaders act as if the question has been asked and answered and isn’t worthy of further pursuit. They are wrong, and Paul keeps proving that again and again.
Why does it seem as if @RandPaul is the only republican still pushing for the truth of this issue? It seems like everyone else in the senate wants us to forget the pandemic ever happened and that our government knew more than they let on.https://t.co/Dbu34EW88E
— Amp America (@AmpAmericaNews) April 9, 2024
More COVID & Rand Paul:
REMEMBER: The Lockdowns Four Years Later, and How They Trampled on Our Liberties (VIP)
Civilization-Ending Events: Rand Paul on Biological Agents and Gain-of-Function Research
Rand Paul Eviscerates Tony Fauci, 'For His Dishonesty, Frankly, He Should Go to Prison'
