In the early days of the pandemic, I found Dr. Anthony Fauci to be the typical government bureaucrat: well-meaning, but inept and ultimately unnecessary in the larger picture. Over the course of the pandemic, and especially due to the investigative reporting I’ve done on the origin of COVID-19, I’ve come to believe that Fauci’s desire to control the narrative on this subject deals squarely with his culpability in creating the pandemic in the first place.

While larger media outlets are now highlighting things reported here in May and June, such as NIH funding of gain-of-function research (or, research that makes viruses more deadly or contagious) at Wuhan and the conflict of interest of the vast majority of the Lancet letter’s signatories, they’re dancing around the bigger story:

Dr. Fauci, the NIAID, and the NIH ignored a ban on gain-of-function research instituted by the Obama administration in 2014 and continued to fund it until the Trump administration revoked funding in April 2020, and knowingly continued to fund research undertaken at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

These facts and many others were revealed in my May 13 piece, “Dr. Fauci’s Testimony to Rand Paul on ‘Gain-of-Function’ Research Certainly Seems Like It Was Untrue.”

As we’ve reported and as Fox News Channel’s Steve Hilton brought out nearly 10 months ago, Dr. Fauci has long been a cheerleader of GoF research. In 2011, Fauci and NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins went on an offensive regarding gain-of-function research, suggesting that such experiments, regardless of the associated dangers, are necessary. The next year, Fauci testified before Congress on the topic again, suggesting again that the benefits of the research outweigh the risks. Throughout the next couple of years, many within the scientific community became alarmed about gain-of-function research, especially after scientists created several chimeric viruses in labs that, had they gotten out, could have spelled global disaster. Yet, Dr. Fauci’s unqualified support continued.

As a result of the serious concern expressed about creating new, more lethal, and more transmissible viruses, the Obama Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services issued a moratorium on US funding of gain-of-function research, which took effect in 2014.  At the time, there were more than a dozen studies that fell under the HHS order, including a study being performed by Dr. Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina.

Below is a copy of the letter sent to UNC:

Of the 14 gain-of-function studies that were occurring at the time of the issued pause, 13 immediately ceased, but one continued – Baric’s study at UNC. Dr. Ralph Baric, often referred to as the “godfather of gain-of-function,” was ordered by the NIH and NIAID to continue his research despite the HHS-issued moratorium. How do we know that?  Well, Baric was careful to note this in his studies performed after the institution of the moratorium.

In the first study, which was completed in the year after the pause in funding and research, Dr. Baric inserted the following disclosure, likely as a means of shielding himself from criticism or questioning as to why he was continuing research that had been stopped.

The second study contained a similar disclosure.

Baric’s funding was not the only study that continued. The NIH and NIAID continued grant funding through EcoHealth Alliance, which conducted gain-of-function research throughout the pause as well.  EcoHealth Alliance also continued funding gain-of-function research through grants issued by the Department of Defense during this time.

While the common thread in these studies is that all the funding and research continued at the direction of the NIH and NIAID during the ordered pause, there’s another common thread running through all three of these studies: The Wuhan Institute of Virology.

In both studies, Baric worked directly in coordination with Dr. Shi Zhengli, the lead researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In one of the studies in which Baric placed his disclosure regarding the research pause, Baric also credited Dr. Shi, proving that not only were the NIH and NIAID aware that the research was being conducted, but a portion of that research also originated with the WIV.

Baric’s other study wasn’t just funded by the NIH, but also the US Department of Defense through a USAID PREDICT grant to EcoHealth Alliance.  EcoHealth Alliance then awarded that money directly to Dr. Shi at the WIV:

Not only does this information directly contradict Dr. Fauci’s statements, but it also proves them to be lies.

In summary:

• The Obama Administration ordered a pause in gain-of-function research.
• That pause was ignored by the Department of Defense (DOD), The National Institutes of Health (NIH), and The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID).
• Three studies confirm that a portion of the research was conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

We’ve been reporting this since May. When will Fauci be interrogated about this?