Fauci’s emails, heavily revised, have led Republicans to demand answers from NIAID director
President Biden claims he is “very confident” in Dr. Anthony Fauci even with ongoing Republican attacks on his chief medical adviser after the uncovering of thousands of his emails from the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
The president was briefing reporters as he was leaving Rehoboth Beach, Del., and when he left he room, one yelled to ask if he is “still” confident in Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Biden leaned his head back in the room and said, “Yes, I am very confident in Dr. Fauci.”
Fauci’s emails, which are heavily revised, have led Republicans to demand answers from the NIAID director about why he didn’t fiercely explore the theory that coronavirus could have been leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China.
In one February 2020 email, he also said wearing a mask was not very effective to keep out the virus, though the disease expert has already admitted he downplayed the effectiveness of masks in part so that supply would reman available for medical professionals.
At the same time, Fox News has confirmed that State Department officials looking to demand transparency from the Chinese government say they were clearly told by colleagues not to investigate the WIV’s gain-of-function research because it might bring unwanted attention to U.S. government funding of it.
“We’ll let him speak for himself,” press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday when asked about Fauci’s emails.
“He’s been an undeniable asset in our country’s pandemic response,” Psaki said. “It’s obviously not that advantageous for me to relitigate the substance of emails from 17 months ago.”
In an email, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins sent Fauci a link to a Fox News report that gave belief to the theory coronavirus could have begun in the Wuhan Institute of Virology with the subject line “conspiracy gains momentum.” Fauci’s response is entirely revised.
In a February 1, 2020, email, immunologist Kristian Andersen wrote to Fauci arguing the virus had “unusual features” that could could mean lab manipulation. Andersen and his team then explored the theory further, and their studies revealed the virus was not a “laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus,” said in the emails.
Another email came to Fauci from Peter Daszak, who runs EcoHealth, which was given millions in grants from the NIH, including a $600,000 grant from the NIAID that it later paid to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study the risk that bat coronaviruses could infect humans.
“I just wanted to say a personal thank you on behalf of our staff and collaborators, for publicly standing up and stating that the scientific evidence supports a natural origin for COVID-19 from a bat-to-human spillover, not a lab release from the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Daszak said in an email. Fauci replied: “Many thanks for your kind note.”
Fauci has since said he is “keeping an open mind” about the virus’s roots.