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WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 20: Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on July 20, 2021 in Washington, DC. The committee will hear testimony about the Biden administration's ongoing plans to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and Delta variant.
Dr. Anthony Fauci has come under fire again after newly released documents appear to contradict his previous claims that the National Institute of Health did not fund gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses.
A 900-page internal document obtained and released by The Intercept through a Freedom of Information Act request showed the work of EcoHealth Alliance, an American research non-profit that receives funding from the NIH to perform research on novel coronaviruses found in bats at the Wuhan lab.
Coronavirus Research
The documents also showed a grant proposal that Ecohealth filed with the NIH, wherein the non-profit requests $3.1 million for the "Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence." Under the project, researchers will screen thousands of lab workers for novel bat coronaviruses.
Documents show the NIH, which is run by Fauci, awarded the grant for 2014 to 2019 and was subsequently renewed before it was canceled under former President Donald Trump's administration.
The proposal also directed at least $599,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology where researchers are tasked with identifying and altering bat coronaviruses that could infect humans.
The grant proposal also addressed concerns associated with the experiment, writing: "Fieldwork involves the highest risk of exposure to SARS or other CoVs, while working in caves with high bat density overhead and the potential for fecal dust to be inhaled," according to Yahoo News.
Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has previously admitted that the United States gave the Wuhan lab funding for research. However, he has firmly and repeatedly denied that the studies qualified as "gain-of-function."
Dr. Ralph Baric from the University of North Carolina, one of the U.S. scientists who collaborated on the 2015 research on bat coronaviruses with scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, said none of the viruses they studied were related to Sars-Cov-2, which caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Importantly, independent studies carried out by Italian scientists and others from around the world have confirmed that none of the bat SARS-like viruses studied at UNC were related to SARS-COV-2, the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic," he said in a statement.
Baric also added that they never introduced mutations into the virus' spike that would give it the ability to infect human cells.
What is "Gain-of-function" research?
"Gain-of-function" studies require researchers to alter or modify the genetic code or place organisms in different environments to increase their pathogenesis, transmissibility or host range.
These types of research create modifications in hopes of developing vaccines and therapeutics to make the organisms less likely to pass on infections. However, it can also create a potentially more dangerous strain.
Scientists partaking in "gain-of-function" research argue that the research can help prepare for future outbreaks and pandemics.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, later blasted Fauci in a tweet, claiming the NIAID director "lied again" after the release of the internal documents.
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— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) September 7, 2021
Richard Ebright, a chemical biology professor from Rutgers University, also took to Twitter to slam Fauci's claim that the NIH did not support "gain-of-function" research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
"NEWLY RELEASED documents provide details of US-funded research on..coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology..The Intercept has obtained more than 900 pages of documents detailing..work of..EcoHealth Alliance..at the Chinese lab.."https://t.co/n3OkFAq3kM
— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) September 7, 2021
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