Source: ChildrensHealthDefense.org
A report released Tuesday by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic presents evidence of a coordinated effort by federal officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, to suppress the COVID-19 lab-leak hypothesis and instead promote the “natural origin” theory.
The 55-page interim report is based on the committee’s “comprehensive investigation into the suppression of the lab-leak hypothesis by America’s leading public health officials through the drafting, publication, and critical reception of the infamous ‘The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2’ (‘Proximal Origin’) publication” in Nature Medicine.
According to the report, “extensive influence” by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the so-called “Bethesda Boys,” including Fauci and then-NIH Director Francis Collins, combined with a “flawed analysis” characterized by “an alarming lack of evidence,” led to the publication of the highly influential “Proximal Origin” paper.
The report includes previously unrevealed Slack messages and emails between the co-authors, unabridged transcripts of interviews with “every U.S.-based contributor to the paper” and a detailed analysis of the “coordinated effort” to suppress the lab-leak theory.
The conclusions were based on a review of 8,000 pages of documents, 25 hours of testimony and five interviews by the committee.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Children’s Health Defense founder and chairman on leave, explores similar allegations in his soon-to-be-released book, “The Wuhan Cover-up: How US Health Officials Conspired with the Chinese Military to Hide the Origins of COVID-19.”
The release of the report follows Tuesday’s testimony before the committee by some of the co-authors of the “Proximal Origin” paper, including Kristian Andersen, Ph.D., a professor of immunology and microbiology at the California-based Scripps Research Institute, and Robert F. Garry, Ph.D., a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Tulane School of Medicine.
According to the report, the “Proximal Origin” paper was used to “downplay the lab-leak hypothesis” and label as “conspiracy theorists” anyone who suggested the virus may have leaked from a lab. The report indicated Fauci and Collins were personally involved in the conceptualization, drafting and publication of the paper.
Indeed, the report said, Collins “expressed dismay” when the paper, despite quickly becoming one of the most heavily cited scientific papers of all time, “did not successfully kill the lab leak theory” — prompting Fauci to double down and directly cite the paper during a White House COVID-19 briefing.
The report states that the “Proximal Origin” paper was “one of the single most impactful and influential scientific papers in history,” that has been used to “unequivocally rule out the possibility COVID-19 was the result of a lab leak,” and was cited by other influential journals such as The Lancet, to further reinforce the “natural origin” theory of COVID-19.
Yet, according to the report, the “Proximal Origin” paper’s “expressed conclusions were not based on sound science nor in fact, but instead on assumptions.”
“The question is why,” the report states.
In a statement, committee chairman Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said:
“America’s leading health officials vilified and suppressed the lab leak theory in pursuit of a preferred, coordinated narrative that was not based in truth or science. The Select Subcommittee’s report proves that the conclusions championed by the co-authors of Proximal Origin are not only inaccurate, but were crafted to appease a stated political motive. …
“Stifling scientific discourse and labeling those who believe in the possibility of a lab-leak as ‘conspiracy theorists’ caused irrefutable harm to public trust in our health officials. Americans deserve to know why honesty, transparency, and facts were abandoned. Our report is devoted to achieving that goal.”
In remarks shared with The Defender, Francis Boyle, J.D., Ph.D., a bioweapons expert and professor of international law at the University of Illinois who drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, said that he warned governments and public health authorities in January 2020 that COVID-19 was an engineered bioweapon….