https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/columbia-virologist-says-wuhan-lab-funder-bankrolled-experiments-used (VIDEO)
-Daniel Payne
Virologist: NIAID grantee funded Wuhan coronavirus studies used in gain-of-function research
In a tense exchange Tuesday with Sen. Rand Paul, longtime NIAID Director Anthony Fauci categorically and repeatedly denied his institute has funded gain-of-function research.
A prominent Columbia University virologist claims that in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic a U.S. nonprofit funded coronavirus experiments in Wuhan, China the results of which were used in "gain-of-function" virology research at the University of North Carolina.
Dr. Vincent Racaniello made the claim amid ongoing controversy over a recently resurfaced interview between himself and Peter Daszak, the president of the U.S. infectious disease nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance.
Both EcoHealth Alliance and the scientist leading the research at UNC have been heavily funded over the years by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which has been directed since 1984 by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the public face of the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic under Presidents Trump and Biden.
Fauci categorically and repeatedly denied that NIAID has funded gain-of-function research in a tense exchange Tuesday with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) at a Senate hearing.
Racianello's half-hour interview with Daszak took place in early December 2019 at the Nipah Virus International Conference in Singapore. Significant attention has been given to a segment in which Daszak appears to allude to having participated in "gain-of-function" experiments, a type of procedure in which scientists increase a virus's pathogenicity and/or transmissibility in order to study its potential for human infection.
"You can manipulate [coronaviruses] in the lab pretty easily," Daszak says in the interview. "Spike protein drives a lot of what happens with the coronavirus, zoonotic risk. So you can get the sequence, you can build the protein — and we work with Ralph Baric at UNC to do this — insert into the backbone of another virus, and do, do some work in the lab."
Those remarks, when they resurfaced this week, caused considerable controversy due to Daszak's role in funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars through his EcoHealth Alliance to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to bankroll coronavirus experiments there. The Wuhan lab sits just a few miles from where the first detected outbreak of COVID-19 occurred.
Speculation has swirled over the last year as to what role, if any, the Wuhan lab may have played in the origin of the pandemic, including whether it was engaging in any gain-of-function experiments that may have posed a pandemic risk.
Experiments 'confer a new property to the original virus'
Racaniello said that Daszak in the December 2019 interview was indeed describing gain-of-function experiments.
Natalie Winters
Nearly 20 scientists from America’s top research institutions penned a letter calling for a genuine investigation into the origins of COVID-19, insuring the “lab leak” theory is “viable.”
Published in Science magazine, the report also slams the recent World Health Organization investigation for basing itself on faulty evidence and not sufficiently debunking the theory that the virus could have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology:
“The information, data, and samples for the study’s first phase were collected and summarized by the Chinese half of the team; the rest of the team built on this analysis. Although there were no findings in clear support of either a natural spillover or a lab accident, the team assessed a zoonotic spillover from an intermediate host as “likely to very likely,” and a laboratory incident as “extremely unlikely.” Furthermore, the two theories were not given balanced consideration. Only 4 of the 313 pages of the report and its annexes addressed the possibility of a laboratory accident.”
“We must take hypotheses about both natural and laboratory spillovers seriously until we have sufficient data,” the letter posits. “Public health agencies and research laboratories alike need to open their records to the public,” it continues.
Among the signatories are professors from institutions including Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. Dr. Ralph Baric – whose gain-of-function research record and ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology were recently discussed in an exchange between Dr. Anthony Fauci and Senator Rand Paul – also signed the letter.
The letter also comes one day after The National Pulse unearthed a conference focused on gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology with several National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)-funded researchers in attendance. Among them was Dr. David Relman – the organizer of the letter.
today Maria Bartiromo ran the clip of Rand Paul then she interviewed Nunes on the topic try to see today's Sunday Morning Futures https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHaeX3sCUNQ