Fauci and then-NIH director Francis Collins “prompted” a scientific study to debunk the lab leak theory
The "risky" projects bankrolled by the National Institutes of Health and the US Agency for International Development would have helped pay for medical supplies, equipment, travel expenses, and salaries at the Wuhan labs, according to CBS News, which broke the story Monday.
Among them was the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where taxpayers funded controversial gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses that federal officials now admit Among them was the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where taxpayers funded controversial gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses that federal officials now admit may have led to the COVID-19 pandemic.
© CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImageAn investigator hired by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) first discovered the allegedly fraudulent funding from NIH and USAID.
"What I've found so far is evidence that points to double billing, potential theft of government funds," Diane Cutler, who said she reviewed 50,000 documents on the matter, told CBS News Mornings.
"It is concerning, especially since it involves dangerous pathogens and risky research."
After publication, EcoHealth Alliance President and CEO Peter Daszak contacted The Post, saying the report contained "several inaccuracies" related to his organization's acceptance of funds for research in China.
"USAID and NIH supported two different projects that are complementary, but distinct, and do not involve duplication of effort," Daszak told The Post in an email, adding that a forthcoming US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report would corroborate that no fraudulent double billing occurred.
© LinkedIn / Diane Cutler“What I’ve found so far is evidence that points to double billing, potential theft of government funds,” investigator Diane Cutler told CBS News of the US funding to Wuhan labs.
Daszak acknowledged that the funding from NIH helped with research projects on "SARS-related coronaviruses in China," while USAID funding helped "to prevent outbreaks and pandemics" with "surveillance on a wide range of viruses in human, livestock and wildlife (bats, primates, rodents) samples," but claimed that the grant records were misinterpreted.
"Again, the work conducted under these two separate lines of funding was assessed for potential duplication of effort and approved following joint US government agency review, then reported on annually by the grantee, reviewed by the NIH and by USAID, and deemed appropriate and correct," he added. "It was also audited independently each year, with no issues identified."
© X/@EcoHealthNYCEcoHealth Alliance, run by British zoologist Peter Daszak, funded studies in Wuhan – the Chinese city where the pandemic began – on manipulated coronaviruses. The boss of EcoHealth Alliance, Peter Daszak, shown left, is known to be close to Dr Anthony Fauci (right)
"In fact, the SARS-related research concerned work on bat coronaviruses, none of which have been shown to infect people," he said. "Furthermore, the work funded by both agencies was not risky, but enabled public health measures, including building better surveillance programs, helping to test anti-COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines, and identifying the cause of livestock die-offs that have the potential to decimate US pork production, among many other benefits."
In response, Marshall refuted all of Daszak's claims, saying he was "confident in the evidence we supplied to the USAID OIG's Office of Investigations."
"EcoHealth Alliance has a long history of presenting positions about their research and actions that are unsupported by facts, most notably to NIH," he said. "EcoHealth will have ample opportunity to explain themselves to USAID OIG investigators."
"We invite EcoHealth to 'explain' their finances by providing their full grant accounting ledgers to the public forthwith," he added. "Open those books, Peter Daszak."
The outlet cited anonymous sources who did not dispute the report and said: "tens of millions of dollars could be involved."
Neither USAID nor an acting general counsel for its inspector general's office responded to a request for comment.
"Americans deserve the truth, especially if our government had a hand in funding the creation of the coronavirus. I am demanding transparency and accountability for the misuse of taxpayer funds. This probe is a step in the right direction. We must follow the money," Marshall told The Post.
A source familiar with the investigation by Marshall's office told The Post that the cost of the fraudulent payments likely exceeds $40 million, but that NIH and USAID record redactions have obscured the true number.
"I think there's 1.1 million reasons that American taxpayers should care" about the funding, the 62-year-old Marshall, who wants a 9/11-style commission on the findings, also told CBS.
"You'll have a plane crashes. We want to find out why the plane crashes. We go to any lengths to do that. And the hope is we don't have another plane crash for the same reason."
The probe comes as two federal agencies — the FBI and Energy Department — have found the coronavirus pandemic most likely originated from a lab leak in Wuhan, where SARS-CoV-2 emerged.
The House on Friday unanimously passed a bill, already approved with unanimous consent in the Senate, to force the White House to declassify intelligence reports on the origins of COVID-19. President Biden has yet to sign it.
"I haven't made that decision yet," Biden, who cannot bock the measure with a veto given the unanimous bipartisan support for it, told reporters before leaving for his Delaware home last weekend.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has firmly resisted theories that NIH funding might have contributed to COVID-19.
He insisted on Sunday that the virus was caused by a "natural occurrence" — even if it came from a lab.
"A lab leak could be that someone was out in the wild, maybe looking for different types of viruses in bats, got infected, went into a lab and was being studied in the lab and then came out of the lab," Fauci, 82, told CNN anchor Jim Acosta.
"But if that's the definition of a lab leak Jim, then that's still a natural occurrence," he insisted.
Fauci and then-NIH director Francis Collins, 72, also "prompted" a scientific study in the early months of the pandemic to debunk the lab leak theory, according to newly released emails.
Robert Redfield, 71, who directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the Trump administration, told Congress last week that Fauci "sidelined" him for suggesting COVID-19 came from a lab.
"This was an a priori decision that there's one point of view that we're going to put out there, and anyone who doesn't agree with it is going to be sidelined," Redfield, 71, told members of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. "And as I say, I was only the CDC director, and I was sidelined."
Comment: Ex-CDC director Redfield says he received death threats from fellow scientists over COVID-19 theory
But Biden's former chief medical adviser dismissed Redfield's claims as well the following day.
"He is totally and unequivocally incorrect in what he's saying, that I excluded him," Fauci told Fox News' Neil Cavuto. "It's really unfortunate that in a public setting, like the hearing, that Dr. Redfield made that absolutely incorrect statement."
You could say - Robert Redfield - old school.....that would have a nice ring to it.
But, I didn't get to choose my birth name - it was given to me.
I chose how I want to present myself though.
~
The tsunami seems to be growing...day, by, day.
Peace is what we need but....
you know, you know what I'm gonna say:
Justice must be served.
~
BK, Poem of the Day, 31523 1129