Fauci and Collins Knew It Was Likely That Covid-19 Came from Wuhan Lab But Ordered the Story Quashed to Protect China;
Scientists Receiving Millions in Grants from Fauci and Collins Changed Their Opinions and Joined the Disinformation Campaign

A new report from Fox mostly rehashes stuff we knew but it's good to get it out there again.

First, what we learned a couple of weeks ago:

Early in the pandemic, multiple scientists urged NIAID Director Anthony Fauci and NIH Director Francis Collins to seriously consider the theory that Covid escaped from a Chinese laboratory, arguing that the lab-leak theory, which Fauci and Collins have downplayed since the pandemic began, was more plausible than the natural origin explanation.

Mike Farzan, an immunology researcher and the discoverer of the SARS receptor, Bob Garry, a virology expert, and Dr. Andrew Rambaut, a British evolutionary biologist, all observed that a particular feature of the virus, the "furin cleavage site," was peculiar and suggested gain-of-function engineering. Their comments were made during a February 2020 conference call of experts, the notes of which were presented to Fauci and Collins and obtained by congressional Republicans.

One month later, in March 2020, Collins said the lab-leak hypothesis was "outrageous." Similarly, in May 2020, Fauci told National Geographic that Covid "could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated."

In his summary, Farzan stated that SARS-CoV-2 had the marking of laboratory experimentation that resulted in a virus that immediately proved highly infectious to humans.

"So given above, a likely explanation could be something as simple as passage SARS-live CoVs in tissue culture on human cell lines (under BSL-2) for an extended period of time, accidentally creating a virus that would be primed for rapid transmission between humans via gain of furin site (from tissue culture) and adaptation to human ACE2 receptor via repeated passage," he said.

Comparing the probabilities associated with "accidental release" and "natural event" respectively, Farzan said he was "70:30 or 60:40" in favor of the former explanation. Referring to another scientist, he said: "He is bothered by the furin site and has a hard time explain that as an event outside the lab (though, there are possible ways in nature, but highly unlikely)."

Garry echoed Farzan in his analysis, adding that the virus's chemical makeup would mean that the "bat virus" would have had to have undergone an extremely intricate alteration more likely to have been performed in a laboratory setting. He later specified that the furin cleavage site present in the original Covid strain would be unlikely to emerge in nature in a way that made the virus highly transmissible in humans.

"I really can't think of a plausible natural scenario where you get from the bat virus or one very similar to it to nCoV where you insert exactly 4 amino acids 12 nucleotides that all have to be added at the exact same time to gain this function -- that and you don't change any other amino acid in S2? I just can't figure out how this gets accomplished in nature," he said.

On a February 2 email, on which Fauci and Collins were copied, Rambaut wrote that he's also skeptical of the notion that the novel furin cleavage site emerged naturally. "From a (natural) evolutionary point of view the only thing here that strikes me as unusual is the furin cleavage site," he said. Rambaut noted that the insertion sequence of Covid, which has not been found in any other known coronavirus, also "resulted in an extremely fit virus in humans," meaning it spreads among humans very efficiently.

While questions circulated among these researchers, the scientific establishment was eager to quiet their suspicions, branding the lab-leak hypothesis still as a "conspiracy" that must be suppressed, the phone conference notes reveal.

An unsigned meeting note, which was presumably signed off on by Fauci and Collins, reads: "I share your view that a swift convening of experts in a confidence inspiring framework (WHO seems really the only option) is needed, or the voices of conspiracy will quickly dominate, doing great potential harm to science and international harmony...."

That is obviously not a scientific conclusion -- in fact, it is directly contrary to all available science.

It's a political one. They want to "preserve harmony" with China.

And, let's face it: They want to cover up their own possible involvement in funding the pandemic that shut down the planet.

Another researcher makes that clearer:

Dr. Ron Fouchier, a Dutch virologist, remarked during the conference that further discussion "about such accusations would unnecessarily distract top researchers from their active duties and do unnecessary harm to science in general and science in China in particular."

Prompting Collins to suggest a full-court political smear campaign against science, which was now rebranded a "conspiracy:"

Collins wrote in an April 2020 email to Fauci and other officials: "Wondering if there is something NIH can do to help put down this very [destructive] conspiracy, with what seems to be growing momentum," and he then embeds a hyperlink to an article about Fox News' anchors supporting the lab-leak theory. The next day, Fauci responds to Collins, saying: "I would not do anything about this right now. It is a shiny object that will go away in times."

It gets worse from here: Two of the researchers who initially thought that the furin cleavage site virtually proved the virus was man-made but then reversed their opinions when Fauci and Collins demanded that this "conspiracy" be quashed received $8.9 million in grants from the pair.

Fox News picks up with a bit more.

On Tuesday night's episode of Special Report with Bret Baier, Fox News dove into the early days of the coronavirus pandemic and explored documents obtained showing that Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was warned early on that the virus may have originated in a Wuhan, China lab.

According to the timeline of events laid out by Baier, Fauci was told on January 27, 2020 that his NIAID had been indirectly funding the Wuhan lab through EcoHealth-- a US-based scientific non-profit that had been working with novel coronaviruses.

In other words: From very early in this process, from just a month and a half into the covid pandemic, we know Fauci was told he may have funded the pandemic.

He cannot deny knowledge of this. We have record he was warned.

So we have proof that he was highly motivated to lie about the origins of covid -- and that this motivation had little to do with "international harmony."

On January 31, Dr. Kristian Andersen, a noted virologist at the Scripps Lab, privately told Fauci that after discussion with his colleagues some of COVID-19's features look possibly engineered and the "genome is inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory."

Andersen added that the situation needed to be looked at more closely, at which point Fauci organized an all hands on deck conference call with colleagues where he was told that risky experiments with the novel coronavirus may not have gone through proper biosafety review and oversight.

Hours later, Fauci hastily organized a call with dozens of worldwide virologists, and notes from the meeting obtained by Special Report reveal that suspicions of the lab leak theory were suppressed over concerns of how the public would react to news of possible Chinese government involvement.

Four days after he was warned that he personally might have funded the creation of covid-19, Fauci ring-led a campaign to lie to the world and claim a natural origin and ruthlessly suppress the science which was pointing at a lab creation -- claiming that his concerns were about China.

Creating an alternative motive to hide his real one.

In the meeting, fears were raised by then-National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins that "science and international harmony" could be harmed and accusations of China's involvement could distract top researchers.

Oh yes he was worried that "top researchers" would face "distractions." That must have been it.

One scientist continued making the case that the virus sure looked lab-made, but Fauci's crime was now in progress, and he would not be deterred:

Another scientist in the meeting dismissed the possibility that the virus jumped from a bat to a person in nature and pointed out that the virus could be generated in a lab much easier.

Fauci and others in the meeting pointed to evidence that the virus originated in a seafood and wild animal market in Wuhan, which was complicated by the market being shut down and scrubbed clean by Chinese authorities.

A consensus was reached in the call that the lab origin should not be mentioned in a paper because it will add "fuel to the conspiracists," and Collins appeared convinced that natural origin of the virus was "more likely."

Even assuming, arguendo, that they legitimately believed the natural origin was "more likely" -- how does "more likely" become "near-certainty" which requires the smearing as "conspiracy theory" the other very live possibility?

Again, this isn't science -- this is accessory after the fact.

Just four days later, five researchers who were on the call authored preliminary findings abandoning their early private beliefs that the virus was likely the result of a lab leak.

Fauci later ring-led additional efforts to run a political smear effort against the lab leak theory, which you all know about already.

And he paid off the "scientists" who were willing to play ball:

Fauci continued to push against the lab leak theory for months, and Special Report has learned that two authors of the scientific report Fauci touted were in close contact with Fauci and awarded millions in grants from his agency.

$8.9 million, I've read in multiple articles.

Why did Fauci and Collins not recuse themselves from the question of the virus' origins, as they had a clear personal liability conflict of interest?

So these are the Norms we're eager to Restore? The Norms of DC insiders abusing their offices to pay off henchmen to change their testimony and to mount publicity campaigns using an allied corrupt media to attack anyone pointing out their culpability?

Below, Baier's Special Report segment, and a Megyn Kelly segment from a couple of weeks ago when the notes from the Cover-Up Conference first broke.

posted by Ace at 12:11 PM

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