The Federalist
By Jim Jordan
Fauci knew COVID-19 likely came from the Wuhan lab. He knew the virus ‘looked engineered.’ And he knew all this on February 1, 2020.
Recently released e-mails show that Dr. Anthony Fauci knew key facts about the origins of COVID-19 in January 2020. But at that critical time, when the country was first learning about the virus, Dr. Fauci chose not to share the facts with Americans. Instead, he acted to conceal them.
On January 31, 2020, at 10:32 p.m., Dr. Fauci received an email from British researcher, Dr. Kristian Andersen. Dr. Andersen has received millions of dollars in grants from the NIH. In the email, he warned Dr. Fauci:
[O]ne has to look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features (potentially) look engineered . . . Eddie [Holmes], Bob [Garry], Mike [Ferguson] and myself all find the genome inconsistent with evolutionary theory.
Two hours later, at 12:29 a.m. on February 1, Dr. Fauci emailed his long-time deputy, Dr. Hugh Auchincloss. In the email, Dr. Fauci attached a paper written by Dr. Ralph Baric and Dr. Zhengli-Li Shi – the so-called “bat woman” from Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The paper highlighted taxpayer-funded gain-of-function research on coronaviruses conducted by the WIV. Dr. Fauci told Dr. Auchincloss:
It is essential that we speak this [morning]. Keep your cell phone on . . . read this paper . . . you will have tasks today that must be done.
Urgency. Intensity.
Two hours later, at 2:48 a.m., Dr. Fauci sent another email, to Dr. Robert Kadlec. Dr. Kadlec was the Trump-appointed Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services. Attached to this email was an article that downplayed the lab leak and advocated for an evolutionary origin to COVID-19. Dr. Fauci simply wrote:
Bob: This came out today. Gives a balanced view.
No urgency. No intensity.
Why was Dr. Fauci so concerned when emailing his deputy but so calm when emailing his boss? Why didn’t he send Dr. Kadlec the Baric-Shi paper? The paper that supported the original message from Dr. Andersen that COVID-19 looked engineered, was inconsistent with evolutionary theory, and linked American tax dollars to gain of function research at the WIV.
Later that morning, at 11:47 a.m., Dr. Auchincloss replied to Dr. Fauci:
The paper you sent me says the experiments were performed before the gain-of-function pause but have since been reviewed and approved by NIH. Not sure what this means since [we are] sure that no coronavirus work has gone through the P3 framework. [We] will try to determine if we have any distant ties to this work abroad.
Wow! Dr. Auchincloss’ email confirms Dr. Fauci’s worst fear. American tax dollars funded gain of function research at the WIV and that research didn’t go through proper oversight (the P3 framework).
Dr. Fauci already knew there was a lethal virus on the loose in Wuhan, China. In just 13 hours, between 10:32 p.m. January 31, 2020, and 11:47 a.m. February 1, 2020, Dr. Fauci learned three additional facts.
First, Dr. Fauci knew that American taxpayers had helped to fund dangerous gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China.
Second, Dr. Fauci knew this research funding did not go through the government’s required safety review process — a process known as the P3 framework.
Third, Dr. Fauci knew that the virus “looked…engineered” and seemed to be “inconsistent with evolutionary theory.”
What did he do next?
He organized a conference call for the evening of February 1, 2020. On the call were 11 virologists from around the world, including Dr. Andersen who sent Dr. Fauci the email less than 24 hours earlier. Almost all the participants on the call had previously been awarded American taxpayer-funded grants by Dr. Fauci.
Who was not on the call?
Dr. Kadlec, Dr. Fauci’s superior at HHS.
Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Brett Giroir, Assistant Secretary for Health.
Or Dr. Birx, the soon-to-be COVID-19 Response Coordinator.
In fact, there was not a single U.S. government official on the call, except for Dr. Fauci.
What happened on the call? We don’t know. All of the emails discussing the call are redacted.
However, we do know what happened four days later. Dr. Andersen, the virologist who sent the original 10:32 p.m. email on January 31, went public with this statement:
“The main crackpot theories going around at the moment relate to this virus being somehow engineered . . . and that is demonstrably false.”
In four days, Dr. Andersen flipped 180 degrees! The only intervening event appears to be the conference call with Dr. Fauci.
In addition, over the next few weeks, Dr. Andersen and three others on the conference call penned an article in Nature Medicine. The article included the definitive statement, that “Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct . . . “
In just three weeks, Dr. Andersen went from COVID-19 “looks…engineered” to “[it] is not a laboratory construct.”
Other emails also show that before this article was published, Dr. Andersen wrote to Dr. Fauci and offered to let him edit the article.
Finally, and maybe most importantly, after the article was published, Dr. Fauci cited it in a White House press briefing as an authoritative source when asked about the virus’ origins. Dr. Fauci cited the very article he put in motion on the conference call, and he was allowed to edit.
Dr. Fauci knew COVID-19 likely came from the WIV. He knew American taxpayers funded gain of function research on coronaviruses at the WIV. He knew this funding bypassed required oversight. And he knew the virus “looked…engineered” and was “inconsistent with evolutionary theory.” And he knew all this on February 1, 2020.
Information of this magnitude should have been taken directly to the President of the United States. Instead, Dr. Fauci organized a conference call with 11 non-governmental virologists to cover his tracks.
I believe it was on this call, they decided to manufacture the article in an attempt to conceal their involvement in gain of function research at the WIV. These 11 unelected scientists decided to hide the truth from the American people for more than a year.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it didn’t happen this way. Maybe there’s a good explanation for why Dr. Fauci did what he did. Unfortunately, Dr. Fauci refuses to testify. Every American should be asking why.
This news originally appeared in The Federalist.
