Republican leaders on a House committee shared Sunday that it found emails showing Dr. Anthony Fauci backed a report to "disprove" the lab leak theory of COVID-19.
The memo was released Sunday entitled "New Evidence Resulting from the Select Subcommittee's Investigation into the Origins of COVID-19 – 'The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2.'"
House committee says Fauci 'prompted' drafting of medical paper to 'disprove' COVID lab leak theory https://t.co/IOHIQgsm0s
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 6, 2023
"New evidence released by the Select Subcommittee today suggests that Dr. Fauci 'prompted' the drafting of a publication that would 'disprove' the lab leak theory, the authors of this paper skewed available evidence to achieve that goal, and Dr. Jeremy Farrar went uncredited despite significant involvement," the memo says.
"On April 16, 2020, slightly more than two months after the original conference call, Dr. Collins emailed Dr. Fauci expressing dismay that Proximal Origin—which they saw prior to publication and were given the opportunity to edit—did not squash the lab leak hypothesis and asks if the NIH can do more to 'put down' the lab leak hypothesis," the memo continued.
"The next day—after Dr. Collins explicitly asked for more public pressure—Dr. Fauci cited Proximal Origin from the White House podium when asked if COVID-19 leaked from a lab," it added.
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
Miranda Divine's New York Post column also showed edits pushed by Farrar.
"On the day the 'Proximal Origin' paper was published, emails show Farrar pushing through a crucial change: 'Sorry to micromanage/micro edit! But would you be willing to change one sentence?'" she wrote.
"Farrar's change was to replace the word 'unlikely' with 'improbable' in a statement about the lab leak origin, so it would read: 'It is improbable that SARS-CoV-2 emerged through laboratory manipulation of an existing SARS-related coronavirus,'" she added.
The last change pushed the view that the lab leak theory was more unlikely than likely, despite evidence otherwise.
Fauci and other leaders on his team may now face new questions concerning the issue as the House further investigates the origins of COVID-19.
