A new congressional report has uncovered disturbing details about a research project conducted at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Daily Mail reported.
The investigation, spanning over 18 months, revealed a pattern of obstruction and misinformation by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the NIH, and NIAID regarding the transfer of genes between different strains of the Monkeypox virus.
Here is the timeline of the investigation:
- June 30, 2015:** NIAID IBC approves a bidirectional MPXV experiment.
- January 9, 2017:** GOFR/OC pause lifted, HHS P3CO established.
- August 4, 2022:** MPOX Public Health Emergency declared.
- September 15, 2022:** Moss tells Science about clade I to clade II experiment.
- October 10, 2022:** Science article about scientists’ concerns with Moss experiment.
- February 8, 2023:** E&C Republicans hold hearing with Acting NIH Director Dr. Larry Tabak.
- March 30, 2023:** E&C Republicans send second letter to NIH.
- April 26, 2023:** HHS letter erroneously denies experiments were formally proposed and approved.
- May 2023:** Federal select agent approval for clade I to clade II experiment is revoked.
- May 30, 2023:** E&C Republicans send third letter to NIH.
- June 22, 2023:** HHS sends letter to STAT denying that Moss formally proposed experiment.
- June 30, 2023:** HHS letter with misleading statements on experiment from Moss & others.
- July 21, 2023:** E&C Republicans send fourth letter to NIH.
- September 21, 2023:** Bipartisan staff meet with Moss & others.
- October 21, 2023:** E&C Republicans send fifth letter to NIH.
- March 19, 2024:** Bipartisan Committee staff review documents in camera.
- May 6, 2024:** OSTP issues new guidance on DURC/GOFR/OC.
According to the report, spearheaded by the Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, NIAID scientists were found to have transferred genes between different clades of the Monkeypox virus, potentially enhancing its lethality and transmissibility.
According to the interim report:
The proposal to transfer genes from the deadlier clade I into the more transmissible clade II alarmed some scientists who believed a more potent version of the mpox outbreak strain could spark an epidemic that would be substantially more lethal.
[…]
In multiple letters and other communications, HHS and the NIH repeatedly told the Committee the most dangerous MPXV experiments had not been “formally proposed” or “planned,” had never been approved or conducted, and were not currently under consideration. The NIH also issued public statements making the same assertion and even forced Science magazine to issue a clarification for one article on the experiment.
HHS’s repeated assertions that the risky transfer of clade I material into clade Il virus experiment was never proposed or approved were false. Internal NIH documents show this experiment was formally proposed and received approval before the NIH’s Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) on June 30, 2015 seven years before the Committee first asked about the MPXV experiment. With the IBC’s approval, researchers could have conducted the proposed bidirectional experiment at any time after June 2015, until May 2023, when the approval was effectively revoked by the NIH (approximately seven months after the Committee’s initial letter that raised concerns about conducting the experiment described by Dr. Moss).
More from Daily Mail:
There are two types of monkeypox viruses: Clade I, which causes severe illness and has killed up to 11 percent of people in previous outbreaks, and Clad II, the type that caused the global outbreak in 2022. These infections are more transmissible but less severe and nearly 100 percent of people survive.
In October 2022, Dr Moss revealed a team of scientists wanted to insert genes from the more dangerous Clade I Mpox into Clade II, making a hybrid strain that could have been both more lethal and more contagious.
Investigators said this would be classified as gain-of-function, which is research that can result in deadlier and more transmissible viruses and is thought to be behind the creation of Covid-19.
It was estimated the new Mpox virus would have had a fatality rate of up to 15 percent and a reproductive rate of 2.4, meaning one sick person could infect more than two other people.
At this rate, the hybrid strain would have had pandemic potential.
You can read the full report below:
