NIH official finally admits taxpayers funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan — after years of denials
It's about damn time.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
At long last, National Institutes of Health (NIH) principal deputy director Lawrence Tabak admitted to Congress Thursday that US taxpayers funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China in the months and years before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Dr. Tabak,” asked Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, “did NIH fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through [Manhattan-based nonprofit] EcoHealth [Alliance]?”
“It depends on your definition of gain-of-function research,” Tabak answered. “If you’re speaking about the generic term, yes, we did.”
The response comes after more than four years of evasions from federal public health officials — including Tabak himself and former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director Dr. Anthony Fauci — about the controversial research practice that modifies viruses to make them more infectious.
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How many remember the constant denials from Dr Fauci that the NIH did any gain-of-function research. He lied under oath to Congress. Will he be held accountable?
This is just the beginning. Another hearing is scheduled next week and on June 3rd they haul in Dr Fauci.
I wonder if we will ever find out about this.
Oh, so America is discovering that American taxpayers are the real cause behind the Covid pandemic? REVELATION!!!
and they are going to be pissed!
Well no, negligence at the lab by sloppy researchers and the coverup by the Chinese government caused the pandemic. American dollars didn’t do that.
Nope, American dollars didn't do that, they just FUNDED it, at a location as far away from America as they could, so as to not endanger the AMERICAN public. That seems to have backfired, didn't it.
Yes, trusting Chinese labs and the Chinese government to operate competently and honestly was a mistake. No doubt,
As an answer to the NT "Robespierres" who lie through their teeth in order to crucify China, there is this...
LINK ->
Then why did the Chinese government destroy information and samples from the labs? They have even admitted it. Why have they refused to share information?
Perhaps because they didn't want to release information that could possibly endanger the whole world if it were to fall into the wrong hands - think of it as an attempt to prevent "The Sum of All Fears".
Of course, the USA does not keep any secrets, right?
Perhaps, but it's also possible they destroyed information to hide the truth as well. The Chinese government has put up a wall around it all and denied it ever happened at that lab but more and more information keeps coming out that points to that lab being the issue.
Yes, every government keeps secrets. Problem is that ALL governments mark as SECRET any embarrassment to themselves as well. The overuse of classification is very problematic and abused all around the globe.
So what it comes down to is nobody really knows, except...
True, we will never know the full truth. The sadder part is that it doesn't seem like we've learned our lesson from this and are not prepared for the next pandemic. All we really know is yes there will be another.
Because we will never know the full truth, and because there are as many expert theories of an animal/bat-based origin as there are of a lab-leak, I resent those who make accusations with respect to one or the other. I do blame the spread on the ignorance of one Chinese official who silenced the doctor who discovered and warned of the virus - the official did not want to cause a panic - doesn't THAT sound familiar? However, China disciplined and dismissed the official. In America the official who didn't want to cause a panic and delayed dealing with the pandemic at least partially caused more than a million American deaths but has paid no penalty, or even apologized for that. I said "partially" because in my opinion the anti-maskers and the anti-vaxxers, and those who refused to do what would prevent the spread because they argued it was against their "personal rights and freedoms" ended up murdering members of their own families besides others.
I find that very interesting and I would like to read about that if you have a link.
I recall reading that information back at the time, but in time things seem to get glossed over, and now all I can find is that they were
"criticized" omitting that they were disciplined and dismissed, but Dr. Li Wenliang and the others were exonerated for their whistleblowing.
"Li Wenliang received national attention after China’s top court Tuesday criticized (link in Chinese) Wuhan police for reprimanding eight Wuhan citizens for “spreading rumors” about an illness in late December, in a post on its official WeChat account. Li is considered to be one of the eight, although the police did not identify who specifically they had accused or punished."
LINK ->
Well, we know for a fact that the Wuhan lab was doing gain-of-function research on dangerous bat virus strains, which apparently escaped, and the commie Chinese government tried to cover it up and let it spread.
Oh yeah, the "commies" let it spread INTENTIONALLY, because it was more effective than nuking the rest of the world. But Trump didn't let it spread, because he simply delayed doing anything about it cause he was concerned the people would panic, as he said in the tape that Woodward recorded.
NOW, see my comment just above yours. Life is "hit and miss" isn't it? I can agree completely with your comments about the Israel-Hamas conflict, but that doesn't mean you're always right.
As I recall it went like this:
Dr. Anthony Fauci , the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the lead White House Coronavirus Task Force members, is on record telling Newsmax in January that the coronavirus was “not a major threat.”
“This is not a major threat to the people of the United States and this is not something that the citizens of the United States should be worried about right now,” Dr. Fauci told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly on January 21.
Didn't everyone do and say what their "dear leader" required of them back then?
Nope.
Nobody knew much about the new virus. Dr Fauci gave the advice and Trump followed it and lost an election because of it.
Then on the one hand Dr. Fauci may have been the initial cause of a million deaths (but as I said, "individual rights and freedoms" pushed it to that extreme) but he also did America a favour.
Wel no. China lying to the world and the CDC, failing to contain the virus and destroying all evidence of it's origins was the cause.
Fuller information was provided to WHO on January 12th 2020 when it became understood.
As for failing to contain the virus - China did a damn good job of containing it originally because maybe it really DID take draconian means sometimes. When it was realized how virulent the virus was the only flights allowed to leave China were humanitarian ones, and at that time other nations were warned - what happened at that end was not China's responsibility. However, a lot of the reason for the difference in the numbers and percentages is because of the differing cultures of the Chinese people and the American people. In China the people are more concerned about the good of their family and community than they are of themselves, as compared to so many Americans stubbornly and selfishly demanding that their "individual rights and freedoms" caused them to ignore the suggested guidelines to prevent the spread of the virus. I did not contract the virus until the Chinese government listened to the demands of the "blank paper" protesters (really? meaning they were not oppressed and silenced?) and opened the door to the spreading of the Omicron variant, which was a much lesser threat so I survived it just by staying home notwithstanding that I have never been vaccinated.
Other readng:
Maybe WHO should have known better, and in fact, maybe America should have known better since the Wuhan lab was manned by both AMERICAN and Chinese scientists, funded by AMERICAN dollars for what it produced. I'm sure that the western press would hardly put any blame on the "western" side of the issue since it fucking well lies all the time anyway. Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow died a long time ago. As I've been saying for years here, my grandpappy told me not to believe anything I read or hear and now, due to the present advances in technology, not to believe anything I see as well, unless it's with my own eyes.
I never denied that China wasn't at least partly at fault - did I not blame the silencing of the Opthamologist? Try as you might to push all of the blame onto China, you simply can't admit, can you, that at the very least AMERICA SHARES IT.
Silence from the hoards here who intimated that this could not be true.
Their hero Fauci is a treasonous little bastard.
The armchair scientists outraged over gain of function research would be the same armchair scientists outraged over the real world consequences of not sufficiently researching gain of function. This is the problem with social media - it’s a megaphone for people whose opinions don’t matter one bit.
consequences of not sufficiently researching gain of funct
Would those include killing more than 7 million people ?
What about 100 million? Maybe 200 million? Nefarious manipulation of biological sciences could wipe out humanity. Research into preventing that is paramount. You are a prime example of a reactionary armchair scientist.
So creating superviruses to wipe out humanity to understand superviruses that can wipe out humanity is such a good idea you not only support the government creating superviruses you cheer them for lying and gaslighting you about it.
That’s some argument.
also, in a republic, scientists have no business deciding whether this research is performed. This isn’t “armchair science”
So creating superviruses to wipe out humanity to understand superviruses that can wipe out humanity is such a good idea
Absolutely, despite the risks. This is why there are only a tiny handful of labs throughout the world are equipped to handle such risk. The fact that these highly specialized labs exist is not some kind of proof that this is where covid or any other biological threat escaped from, regardless of your armchair scientist opinions and conspiracy theories.
Calling the lab leak theory a "conspiracy theory" says it all. Even fauci stopped peddling that BS year ago.
But it's a great example of why Fauci and his team spun that tale. The first impression sticks with so many people because they refuse to actually reconsider their opinions once they buy in.
Not a big deal, it was only one guy from China and it was completely under control.
You can now see how Sean has "jumped the gun" in his "virulent" desire to crucify China (Interesting, isn't it, that the lab is funded and manned to a great extent by America rather than China) by taking note of my comment above: LINK ->