Gov Ops requests records about UNC-Chapel Hill coronavirus researcher Baric

As North Carolina House chairman of the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations, House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, has requested records from UNC-Chapel Hill regarding Dr. Ralph Baric and his work related to COVID-19.

In a June 13 letter obtained by Carolina Journal through the speaker’s office, Hall requested records from UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts, originally requested by the US Right to Know, a nonprofit newsroom and public health research group.

He also confirmed on X his push for answers and transparency.

It’s been five years and we still don’t have the full truth about COVID. I’m pushing for answers, because NC and the rest of the world deserves transparency. pic.twitter.com/Uvxp6NdsT9

— Speaker Destin Hall (@ncspeakerhall) June 13, 2025

Right to Know group files lawsuit against UNC-CHapel Hill for Baric’s records

The group has sued the university for Baric’s records to find out more information on the origins of the COVID-19 virus.

Last month, US Right to Know filed an opening brief with the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

“The subject matter of this case is of great public interest, since more than one million American lives have been lost because of COVID-19,” the plaintiff’s lawyers wrote. “This case is also of significant public interest in that the National Institutes of Health reports … that Dr. Baric has been awarded grants or other funding for projects and sub-projects in an amount exceeding $200 million since 1986.”

The request for UNC’s public records began in July 2020, according to the court filing. After initially reporting that the requests involved more than 336,000 pages of documents, the university eventually pulled 86,934 pages in response to the request. “Defendant provided only 6 pages of responsive documents from a critical time period concerning the origins of COVID-19, namely from March 20, 2019, to January 9, 2020,” the brief explained.

Hall has requested records from July 2, 2020, to Aug. 12, 2024.

In addition, Hall has requested all documents provided to congressional members, committees, and subcommittees related to Ralph Baric, the Baric Lab, SARS-CoV-2, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. This includes, but is not limited to, materials shared with the US House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and the US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. He also requested all communications — such as emails, text messages, meeting notes, calendar invites, or digital platform messages — sent to or from any account connected to the Baric Lab (excluding Ralph Baric’s account) and accounts linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, EcoHealth Alliance, or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from Jan. 1, 2018, to Dec. 31, 2021.

Hall noted that under state law, requests made by the commission are confidential, and the details of such “shall only be revealed by an agency employee to another agency employee to the extent that it is necessary to fulfill a request for document production or to gather more information as requested.”

He told Roberts that he expects a response from the university by June 18.

UNC-Chapel Hill response to Hall’s request

Kevin Best, senior director of media relations for UNC-Chapel Hill, told CJ in an emailed statement, “The University deeply values and appreciates its partnership with the General Assembly and is committed to legal compliance and transparency.”  

Former CDC director accused baric of starting COVid-19 in UNC-chapel hill lab

In November, Carolina Journal reported how Dr. Robert Redfield, the former director of the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), made a direct accusation that COVID-19 was started in a lab at UNC-Chapel Hill by Baric and not a lab in Wuhan, China.

He made the claim on the Third Opinion podcast.

He said the virus was “intentionally engineered as a part of a biodefense program” and that the US role in it was substantial.

“When you look at the accountability for China, their accountability is not in the lab work and the creation of the virus,” he told the podcaster. “Their accountability is not following the international health regulations after they realized that they had a problem and allowing people like me, at the CDC, to come in and to help them within 48 hours like they were obligated to based on the treaty. (The US) funded the research, both from NIH (National Institutes of Health) the State Department USAID and the Defense Department. All four of those agencies helped fund this research.”

He went on to say that the “scientific mastermind behind the research” is Baric at UNC-Chapel Hill, who he says was very involved in this research.

“I think he probably helped create some of the original viral lines, but I can’t prove that, but he was very involved,” Redfield said. “I think there is a real possibility that the virus’s birthplace was Chapel Hill.”

Baric is a longtime researcher of coronaviruses

Baric has been researching coronaviruses for three decades and has authored hundreds of papers. He received the UNC System’s 2021 Oliver Max Gardner Award, which recognizes faculty who have “made the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race.” The award, named for former NC Gov. O. Max Gardner, is the highest honor the UNC System confers on faculty. 

At the time, UNC Board of Governors chairman Randy Ramsey said, “Dr. Baric has provided life-saving coronavirus treatment options for the people of our state, our nation, and the world.”

In 2021, US Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, also pointed the finger at Baric at a congressional hearing.

“For years, Dr. Ralph Baric, a virologist in the U.S., has been collaborating with Dr. Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Virology Institute, sharing his discoveries about how to create super-viruses,” Paul said. “This gain-of-function research has been funded by the NIH [National Institutes of Health]. The implication was clear: intentionally or unwittingly, Baric was complicit in the creation of SARS-CoV-2, notwithstanding the total lack of evidence.”

Baric later told MIT Technology Review, “We never created a supervirus. That’s a figment of his (Paul’s) imagination and obviously being used for political advancement.”

Paul, who also had a beef with Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had also criticized “gain-of-function” research, which Baric uses. This research involves experiments that alter viruses or other organisms’ genetic makeup to gain new abilities or functions. In viruses, this can mean making them more transmissible or perhaps more deadly.

In 2014, the federal government put a moratorium on some gain-of-function research, but Baric’s work was not banned.

President trump signs executive order banning funding for gain-of-function research

Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning federal funding for gain-of-function research abroad in countries like China and Iran. It also blocks US dollars from supporting foreign projects that could lead to another pandemic and gives US agencies the authority to review and end funding for any biological research that could pose a threat to national health, safety, or security.

Woody White, who sits on the UNC Board of Governors, told CJ in an emailed statement that he commends Speaker Hall’s efforts to learn more about COVID’s origins.

“Like many around the world, and especially in North Carolina, I’ve followed this issue closely, especially Prof. Baric’s testimony before Congress, and the lawsuit that seeks more disclosure,” he said. “The sooner all information is made public, the quicker important questions will be answered. If there were no errors made or lapses in either judgment or performance under grant guidelines, then there should be no reluctance to make everything available for public inspection.”

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