House Republicans on the select subcommittee investigating COVID-19 origins released emails Sunday that appear to show Dr. Anthony Fauci commissioned a paper set out to disprove the lab leak theory.
On Feb. 1, 2020, Fauci, Dr. Francis Collins and at least eleven other scientists were informed during a conference call that the COVID-19 virus most likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, according to the electronic communications obtained and published by Republicans. They were also informed that it was possible the virus had been “intentionally” manipulated, according to the release from the House Subcommittee.
In response, four of the scientists on that call wrote a paper Feb. 4, 2020, entitled “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” and sent the final draft to Fauci and Collins for approval prior to its final publication in the journal Nature Medicine, the release stated. In it, the scientists stated, “Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.”
On April 16, two months after the phone call, Collins reportedly emailed Fauci complaining that the paper did not do enough to discredit the lab theory, the release from the subcommittee states. Responding to calls from Collins to increase “public pressure” for the proximal origin theory, Fauci addressed the press the following day, citing the paper and distancing himself from the authors, the release reports.
“There was a study recently that we can make available to you where a group of highly qualified evolutionary virologists looked at the sequences … in bats as they evolve and the mutations that it took to get to the point where it is now is totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human,” Fauci stated April 17, 2020, when asked about whether the virus had been intentionally manipulated.
“So, the paper will be available. I don’t have the authors right now, but we can make it available to you,” Fauci continued.
Column’s up: New emails show Dr. Anthony Fauci commissioned scientific paper in Feb. 2020 to disprove Wuhan lab leak theory.https://t.co/dAwHgc2wn5
— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) March 6, 2023
“It remains unclear what science changed, or new evidence was discovered to change the minds of the authors of Proximal Origin between the February 1 conference call and the February 4 draft,” the Republicans’ release states. Evidence seems to suggest that co-author Dr. Kristian Andersen of Scripps Research was pressured to write the paper on proximal origin with the aim to disprove the lab leak theory, the release alleges. (RELATED: Sen. Rand Paul Accuses Of Dr. Fauci On ‘Hannity’ Of ‘Lying Dozens Of Times’)
“Our main work over the last couple of weeks has been focused on trying to disprove any type of lab theory,” Andersen wrote in a Feb. 2020 email, according to the release.
On Aug. 18, 2021, Scripps testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, telling congressmen that Andersen had “objectively” analyzed the data in regards to COVID’s origins independently of Fauci, the release states.
A Feb. 12, 2020, email shows Andersen wrote to Nature Medicine about the paper that he had been working with multiple researchers on, including Fauci and Collins, “through much of the (primarily) genetic data to provide agnostic and scientifically informed hypothesis around the origins of the virus,” the release reveals.
Evidence also suggests, according to the release, that Dr. Jeremy Farrar, chief scientist of the World Health Organization (WHO), was also involved in the proximal origin paper. Though he is not listed among the paper’s contributors, Farrar allegedly “led the drafting process and in fact made direct edits to the substance of the publication.”