Richard H. Ebright, molecular biologist at the National Institutes of Health, posted a letter contradicting COVID czar Anthony Fauci‘s previous testimony that the NIH had not funded gain-of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Breitbart reported.
NIH corrects untruthful assertions by NIH Director Collins and NIAID Director Fauci that NIH had not funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan.
NIH states that EcoHealth Alliance violated Terms and Conditions of NIH grant AI110964. pic.twitter.com/cFOtJlRoWl
— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) October 20, 2021
The Oct. 20 letter stated that the NIH money was granted to the EcoHealth Alliance, and was sub-awarded to the Wuhan lab.
Republicans including Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., responded to the bombshell by calling for Fauci to be “investigated and prosecuted.”
In the letter, Ebright said the money funded a research project starting in 2018 that tested “if spike proteins from naturally occurring bat coronaviruses circulating in China were capable of binding to the human ACE2 receptor in a mouse model.”
The researchers on the project did find that “laboratory mice infected with the SHC014 WIV1 bat coronavirus became sicker than those infected with the WIV1 bat coronavirus.”
Ebright explained that by not reporting the protein spike, the EcoHealth Alliance violated the terms and conditions of the grant.
“Out of an abundance of caution and as an additional layer of oversight, language was included in the terms and conditions of the grant award to EcoHealth that outlined criteria for a secondary review,” the NIH said. “Such as a requirement that the grantee report immediately a one log increase in growth.”
The measures put in place required a secondary review pending any serious findings to determine whether the research was safe and if the goals of the project should have been revisited.
EcoHealth Alliance did not report its findings, thereby violating the terms of the grant.
The letter from the NIH does note that the coronaviruses that were being studied are distantly related to SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19, and are unlikely to have mutated.
This finding will likely put fibbing Fauci back in the hot seat, as it shows he lied under oath about his knowledge of the gain-of-function research.
Fauchi has not made a statement regarding these findings as of this writing.
