For many months, Sen. Rand Paul has been at open war with Dr. Anthony Fauci regarding the coronavirus. The latter has routinely misled the public on a variety of issues, including the nature of NIH funding sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

RedState’s Scott Hounsell has been chronicling the twists and turns (see here, here, and here), including the fact that NIH funded a gain-of-function grant to EcoHealth Alliance titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence,” that was partially carried out at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Now, The Intercept has obtained 900 pages of documents on that research, proving that the NIH funded gain-of-function research on coronaviruses via EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan lab.*

"The trove of documents includes two previously unpublished grant proposals that were funded by the NIAID, as well as project updates relating to the EcoHealth Alliance’s research, which has been scrutinized amid increased interest in the origins of the pandemic."

— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) September 7, 2021

(This had been evident previously from published research papers that credited the 2014 grant and from the publicly available summary of the 2019 grant. But this now can be stated definitively from progress reports of the 2014 grant and the full proposal of the 2017 grant.)

— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) September 7, 2021

The materials reveal that the resulting novel, laboratory-generated SARS-related coronaviruses also could infect mice engineered to display human receptors on cells ("humanized mice").

— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) September 7, 2021

…and thus not only was reasonably anticipated to exhibit enhanced pathogenicity, but, indeed, was *demonstrated* to exhibit enhanced pathogenicity.

— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) September 7, 2021

In short, the research that was done absolutely could have led to the creation of the COVID-19 virus that has killed millions of people and wrecked economies and civil liberties across the globe. There’s way too much here to just be coincidence, in my view, especially since we’ve yet to garner any evidence that COVID came from nature, having been spread to humans via a Chinese wet market.

Then we get to the damning conclusion, which is that Fauci absolutely lied to Congress when he repeatedly denied that grant funding went to gain-of-function research, including involving coronaviruses.

The documents make it clear that assertions by the NIH Director, Francis Collins, and the NIAID Director, Anthony Fauci, that the NIH did not support gain-of-function research or potential pandemic pathogen enhancement at WIV are untruthful.

— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) September 7, 2021

Remember, just recently, Fauci molded his denial to include the qualifier that nothing that was funded could have possibly led to the pandemic (as if that would excuse handing money to the Chinese communists for gain-of-function research). Now, that weasely, politician-like excuse has been shown to be false as well. Fauci simply lied to a Senate committee and to the American public.

Here’s Rand Paul pointing out that he was right and Fauci lied.

Surprise surprise – Fauci lied again

And I was right about his agency funding novel Coronavirus research at Wuhan.

Read this thread and the papers released. https://t.co/zQizKXLdbd

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) September 7, 2021

Yet, we are continually told to trust Fauci, not just by the government, but by throngs of “journalists” in the media as well. The embattled bureaucrat was just on with CNN’s Jim Acosta last weekend speaking untruths about ICU beds and promoting booster shots. Fauci continues to be a media darling even as his credibility crumbles around him.

The American people deserve accountability. Fauci has not only been a terrible manager and messenger during the COVID-19 pandemic but he is tied to research that possibly led to the creation of the pandemic in the first place. That should not be ignored any longer. That this man still has a job is a national travesty, and that he keeps sitting on his high horse, lecturing others as if his hands aren’t dirty is a gross spectacle of government corruption and manipulation.

Heads need to roll, and though it may take Republicans retaking the government first, the passage of time is no excuse to just let this go. Those that sent taxpayer money to China to create dangerous, human-transmissible coronaviruses are the villains here. That includes the irreproachable Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has now been shown to have lied under oath to Congress. Do not forget.

(*RedState submitted a FOIA request in mid-June for documents related to this study, including emails between Fauci and Daszak and progress reports, and has been continually stonewalled. This piece was edited post-publication to reflect RedState’s reporting on the matter.)