The National Institutes of Health (NIH) under both the Trump and Biden administrations has continued to award millions in taxpayer-funded grants to scientists who played a central role in stifling public debate over the possibility that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory accident.
In March 2020, Nature Medicine published the now-infamous article “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” which concluded that the virus was “not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.” This paper became the primary scientific source used by public health leaders — including then–NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci and then–NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins — to dismiss lab-leak concerns as conspiracy theories.
However, emails released in later investigations show that several of the paper’s authors, including primary author Kristian G. Andersen, initially believed certain features of the virus looked engineered. On January 31, 2020, Andersen wrote to Fauci that “some of the features (potentially) look engineered” and that he and fellow researchers Robert Garry, Edward Holmes, and Michael Farzan found the genome “inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory.”
Just days later, after a private February 1 conference call with Fauci, Collins, and other scientists, the same researchers began drafting the Proximal Origin paper — a draft that was reportedly sent to Fauci and Collins “for editing and approval” before publication.
From Private Doubt to Public Dismissal
Despite early uncertainty and private speculation about possible lab origins, the final published paper firmly shut the door on the lab-leak hypothesis. Critics, including Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University, have accused the authors of committing science fraud by publishing conclusions they “knew to be invalid” and then reinforcing them in later follow-up studies.
A House subcommittee concluded that the Proximal Origin paper was part of a coordinated effort to steer public perception away from the lab-leak theory at a critical time.
Millions in Continuing NIH Grants
Grant records show that Andersen, Garry, and another co-author, Ian Lipkin, are still receiving substantial NIH funding:
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Kristian Andersen is the principal investigator on several NIH/NIAID grants totaling over $3.4 million, including funding for the Center for Viral Systems Biology (CViSB), which he directs. Garry serves as CViSB’s co-director.
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Robert Garry leads a separate NIH project worth nearly $515,000, aimed at developing models to predict disease severity for Lassa, Ebola, and COVID-19.
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Ian Lipkin is the principal investigator on a $1.9 million grant at Columbia University to study gene-environment interactions between the immune system and infectious agents.
Notably, Holmes and Andrew Rambaut — also co-authors of the Proximal Origin paper — do not appear to have active NIH-funded projects at this time.
Call for Investigation
Ebright has called on the NIH Office of Research Integrity and the Department of Health and Human Services to:
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Retract the Proximal Origin paper and related follow-ups
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Terminate and claw back federal funding from the scientists involved
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Debar them from eligibility for future taxpayer-funded grants
An NIH spokesperson declined to comment on whether compliance reviews are underway, citing policy.
The controversy continues to fuel public skepticism about the transparency of pandemic science — and about whether taxpayer money is still being used to support researchers who may have played a role in misleading the public during the earliest days of COVID-19.
DailyClout.io will continue to cover this story. Source article below:
https://www.oversight.house.gov/release/covid-origins-hearing-wrap-up-facts-science-evidence-point-to-a-wuhan-lab-leak
https://www.science.org/content/article/politicians-scientists-spar-over-alleged-nih-cover-up-using-covid-19-origin-paper
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/science/article/2022/12/19/the-e-mails-that-helped-shape-a-major-scientific-paper-on-the-origin-of-sars-cov-2_6008365_10.html
https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-says-grantee-failed-report-experiment-wuhan-created-bat-virus-made-mice-sicker
https://www.heritage.org/public-health/commentary/how-fauci-and-nih-leaders-worked-discredit-covid-19-lab-leak-theory
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The post NIH Still Funds Scientists Who Suppressed COVID Lab Leak Debate appeared first on DailyClout.
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Author: Sean Probber
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