{"id":33927,"date":"2024-06-11T00:14:45","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T04:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=33927"},"modified":"2024-12-12T11:20:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T16:20:01","slug":"lawmaker-it-is-not-anti-science-to-hold-nih-accountable-for-coverup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2024\/06\/11\/lawmaker-it-is-not-anti-science-to-hold-nih-accountable-for-coverup\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmaker: \u2018It Is Not Anti-Science\u2019 to Hold NIH Accountable for Coverup"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The effort to get to the bottom of the origins of\u00a0COVID-19<\/a>\u00a0is more than four years in the making. And while shockingly little progress has been made, evidence suggests that a plot to conceal answers is\u00a0unraveling<\/a>\u00a0before our eyes.<\/p>\n

The latest evidence comes from David Morens, a top adviser to former National Institutes of Health Director\u00a0Anthony Fauci<\/a>, who last month testified before the House\u2019s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic about emails he sent to colleagues concerning Freedom of Information Act requests.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned from our FOIA lady here how to make emails disappear after I am FOIA\u2019d but before the search starts,\u201d Morens\u00a0wrote<\/a>. \u201cSo I think we are all safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

While questioning Morens, Democrats and Republicans alike expressed shock and dismay over the emails as well as Morens\u2019s repeated excuses and dissembling.<\/p>\n

\u201cSir, I think you\u2019re going to be haunted by your testimony today,\u201d said Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD).<\/p>\n

Morens may not be the only one haunted.<\/p>\n

In several emails, Morens referenced \u201cTony,\u201d Dr. Fauci, with whom he claimed to have a \u201csecret backchannel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail or hand it to him at work or at his house,\u201d Morens\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0to Peter Daszak.<\/p>\n

Daszak, the president of EcoHealth Alliance, was the recipient of a multimillion-dollar NIH grant to conduct gain-of-function research on coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the lab many government agencies, including the FBI, believe was the likely source of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

The fact that EcoHealth Alliance was conducting risky experiments on coronaviruses at Wuhan with NIH dollars, something Fauci had\u00a0repeatedly denied<\/a>, explains why the NIH might have felt a need to deliberate in secret. Emails say that the NIH was working to protect EcoHealth Alliance\u2019s and the NIH\u2019s reputations.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeter, from Tony\u2019s recent numerous comments to me \u2026 they are trying to protect you, which also protects their own reputation,\u201d Morens wrote.<\/p>\n

At least for some, this protection apparently extended to hiding communications from the public and deleting correspondences to conceal the truth from the public.<\/p>\n

Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ)\u00a0read aloud<\/a>\u00a0no fewer than half a dozen emails written by Morens in which he discussed not just how to avoid FOIA but how to \u201cerase\u201d emails so they could not be retrieved.<\/p>\n

Just who will be implicated in the fallout from the apparent conspiracy to hide the truth is unclear, but it\u2019s not a trivial question, considering how the matter has been\u00a0referred<\/a>\u00a0to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation. (Willfully avoiding FOIA is a federal crime.)<\/p>\n

At least one person, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who has frequently sparred with Fauci, said the conspiracy goes higher than Morens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe Anthony Fauci was in charge of the entire conspiracy,\u201d Paul said.<\/p>\n

For his part, Morens told lawmakers he had no recollection of talking with Fauci about emails. Evidence, however, suggests that Morens is either lying or suffering from a fuzzy memory.<\/p>\n

In one\u00a0June 2021 email<\/a>\u00a0to a recipient whose name is redacted, Morens discussed an email correspondence between himself and Daszak that he \u201cerased long ago,\u201d adding, \u201cI feel pretty sure that Tony\u2019s was too.\u201d<\/p>\n

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How Morens could be \u201cpretty sure\u201d Fauci had deleted the email in question without ever having discussed emails with the former NIH director is a question that investigators might ponder.<\/p>\n

Whether justice will be delivered to those involved in the effort to avoid oversight and deflect scrutiny from EcoHealth Alliance\u2019s research at Wuhan is uncertain. What\u2019s clear is that the NIH is a broken institution.<\/p>\n

The relationship between Daszak and Morens reeks of cronyism, and it includes Morens editing grant application materials for Daszak and then wondering if any \u201ckickbacks\u201d would be coming his way.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to believe that the worst part of big government is its inefficiency. \u201cIf you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert,\u201d Milton Friedman famously quipped, \u201cin five years there\u2019d be a shortage of sand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the costs of government gigantism go beyond dollars and cents. It\u2019s now apparent that the NIH, freed from the market forces that ensure scarce resources are allocated efficiently, was spraying money around in reckless fashion without proper oversight.<\/p>\n

With its $47 billion budget, the NIH was doling out grants to fund research it clearly should not have been funding. And instead of coming clean following the emergence of COVID-19, officials at the NIH leveraged its power and resources to\u00a0silence critics<\/a>, marginalize other scientists, and accuse anyone who opposed NIH policies of being \u201canti-science<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the political cover the NIH has enjoyed up to this point seems to be vanishing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not anti-science to hold you accountable,\u201d Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA), the panel\u2019s top Democrat, flatly told Morens.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see whether these words also apply to Fauci, who is scheduled to appear before Congress on June 3. The wheels of justice turn slowly, they say. We may soon learn whether, in Washington, they still turn at all.<\/p>\n

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