Sen. Rand Paul confronts Dr. Anthony Fauci regarding Gain of Function research, funding, and what was going on at the Wuhan Lab. (May 11, 2021, US Senate Hearing)
Dr Fauci and CDC Director Walensky Testify on Efforts to Combat COVID-19 (Full Video) URL: https://www.c-span.org/video/?511511-1/dr-fauci-cdc-director-walensky-testify-efforts-combat-covid-19
(Targeted, key highlights transcript by Brian O’Shea, transcribed on May 13, 2021)FAUCI, PAUL, No-see-um technique, Gain-of-Function, Dr. Baric, Dr Shi, Funding (Shi Zheng Li AKA Zhengli Shi, AKA Shi Z l)
May 11, 2021
Dr. Fauci and CDC Director Walensky Testify on Efforts to Combat COVID-19 (Full Video)
URL: https://www.c-span.org/video/?511511-1/dr-fauci-cdc-director-walensky-testify-efforts-combat-covid-19
“Description: The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held a hearing on efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Witnesses included Dr. Anthony Fauci and CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. Dr. Fauci said the Biden administration’s aim to have 70 percent of adult Americans vaccinated with at least one shot was “an attainable goal” and that if the U.S. continued its rate of vaccinations, it would have “so few infections in this country, we will begin to return to a normality that all of us desire so much.” Dr. Walensky testified that while she was encouraged by the decreased rate of COVID-19 infections, she encouraged Americans to “remain vigilant.” The witnesses, who also included HHS COVID-19 Response Chief Dr. David Kessler and FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Director Peter Marks, answered a variety of questions regarding updating the CDC’s COVID-19 guidelines, vaccinating children, the potential need for booster shots, and worldwide vaccination efforts.” (above summary provided by C-Span)
(54:42)
Senator Rand Paul, R-Kentucky (“Sen Paul”):Dr. Fauci, do you still support funding of the NIH funding of the lab in Wuhan?
Doctor Anthony Fauci, NIAID, NIH (“Dr. Fauci”):Senator Paul, with all due respect, you are entirely and completely incorrect that the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Sen Paul: Do they fund Dr. Baric?
Dr. Fauci: We do not fund gain-
Sen Paul: You fund Dr. Baric’s Gain-of-Function research?
Dr. Fauci: Dr. Baric does not doing gain of function research and if it is, it’s according to the guidelines and it is being conducted in North Carolina. Not in China.
Sen. Paul: You don’t think inserting a bat virus spike protein that he got from the Wuhan Institute into the SARs virus is Gain of function, you would be in the minority because at least 200 scientists have signed a statement from the Cambridge Working Group saying that it IS gain of function research.
Dr. Fauci: Well, it is not! And if you look at the grant and you look at the progress reports it is not gain of function, despite the fact that people tweet that, they write about it -
Sen. Paul: So, do you still support sending money to the Wuhan Virology Institute?
Dr. Fauci: We do not send money now to the Wuhan Virology Insti-
Sen. Paul: You support sending money. We did, under your tutelage, we were sending it through EcoHealth. It was a sub-agency and a sub-grant. Do you support the money from NIH that was going to the Wuhan Institute?
Dr. Fauci: Let me explain to you why that was done. The SARS-Covid-1 originated in bats in China. It would have been irresponsible of us if we did not investigate the bat viruses and the virology to see who might have been infected in China.
(56:39)
Sen. Paul: Government scientists like yourself who favor gain of function research --
Dr. Fauci:I don’t favor gain of function research in China. You are saying things that are not correct!
(56:59)
Sen. Paul: Interestingly, the technique that Dr. Baric developed forces mutations by serial passage through cell culture…that the mutations appear to be natural. In fact, Dr. Baric named the technique the ‘no-see-um technique,’ ‘cause the mutations appear naturally—
(58:12)
Sen Paul: Will you in front of this group categorically say that the covid 19 could not have occurred through serial passage in a laboratory?
(58:20)
Dr. Fauci: I do not have any accounting of what the Chinese may have done and I’m FULLY in favor of any further investigation of what went on in China. However, I will repeat AGAIN, that the NIH and NIAID categorically has not funded Gain-of-Function research to be conducted in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Sen Paul: But you supported it in the US. We have 11 labs doing it. And you have allowed it here. We have a committee to do it, but the committee has granted every exemption.
(59:11)
Dr. Fauci: I fully agree that you should investigate where the virus came from. But again, we have not funded Gain-of-Function research on this Virus in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. No matter how many times you say it, it did not happen.
Sen. Paul: You’re parsing words! You’re parsing words! There was research done with Dr. Xi and Dr. Baric. They have collaborated on Gain-of-Function research where they enhanced the SARs virus to infect human airway cells. And they did it by merging a new spike protein on it. That IS gain of function. That was joint research between the Wuhan Institute and Dr. Baric. You can’t deny it.
(59:54)
Dr. Fauci (to the Chair):Excuse me? I just wanted to say…heh…I don’t know how many times I can say it, Madame Chair: we did not fund Gain-of-Function research to be conducted in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
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We know 1 lab is at UNC. But
@SenRandPaul
said there are 11 US-based labs doing the same research (see transcription on initial tweet in this thread)Are the US-based locations listed on at https://batonehealth.org website the other 10?
https://twitter.com/BrianOSheaSPI/status/1413731221704695808?s=20