I am currently attending the American Society for Virology annual meeting. Although I normally love catching up with friends and seeing the latest research in my field, I had a lot of anxiety about coming here. I have been struggling with a mystery medical condition and have really struggled to keep up my academic commitments, particularly those requiring travel. I had a visit from what I’ve started to call the vomit fairy last night and it knocked me out all morning today. I made it to the afternoon sessions and saw some really cool Ebola and Marburg research, but that was all I could manage. I had to prematurely abort a glass of wine with a colleague and very dear friend to rest before 7 pm. My conference game is not what it used to be. But I’m really glad that I did, because it’s given me fresh resolve to fight the existential threat faced by both American virology and American democracy.
I have devoted my life and career to virology, as did Anthony S. Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). I went into virology because I thought I could make a real scientific contribution that would save lives and make the world a safer and healthier place. Fauci was one of many who inspired me to pursue this work, because I thought he did it for the same reasons I wanted to. Like Fauci, I also received a Jesuit education that emphasized both intellectual rigor and acts of service. I am doing what I am doing now due to what I consider my moral obligation to serve both my field and my country.
Perhaps that is what has led us and our nation to this terrible place: many people do not critically consider the actual evidence anymore and current leadership would like to make cruel selfishness a core American value. I’m getting midnight visits from the vomit fairy, Fauci is being prosecuted, and the spectrum of damage it has inflicted on all my colleagues is too much for a short post about tomorrow’s first show trial of the new McCarthyist era. I will be covering it and fact-checking claims made in real time, so please join me here at 8:15 am ET! I’ll post the recording and transcript after if you’d prefer to start your day with less negativity, but please do check it out.
Every American needs to know what the stakes are here. This is not about just Tony Fauci or virology or science or public health. This is about every single American and our civil liberties.
New Season of Prosecute Fauci About to Drop
Tomorrow morning, Fauci will be dragged before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Accountability Committee HSGAC) by Rand Paul. Paul hates Fauci, ever since Fauci called him a liar in a HSGAC hearing from 2021. That’s because Paul accused Fauci of funding gain of function virology research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Gain of function research in this context refers to research that makes viruses more transmissible and/or pathogenic in humans.
Paul accused Fauci of approving research to create novel SARS-related coronavirus chimeras (two viruses spliced together) and this violated the NIH pause on gain of function work. However, the work in question did not meet NIH’s definition (as Fauci and many experts have consistently stated, including me). The truth did not deter Paul from indirectly accusing Fauci of funding gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that started the pandemic.
Fauci called that exactly what it is: a lie.
I totally resent the lie that you are now propagating, Senator, because if you look at the viruses that were used in the experiments that were given in the annual reports and that were published in the literature, it is molecularly impossible that those viruses caused the pandemic.
-Anthony S. Fauci, HSGAC testimony, July 20, 2021
This did not improve relations with Paul, and consequently he has made ending Fauci a personal vendetta and obsession. They have since sparred in other HSGAC meetings, causing Paul to attack more and more of my colleagues. Paul is incensed that on his way out of office, President Joe Biden pardoned Fauci preemptively, along with some members of his family and the January 6th committee who he correctly anticipated would be persecuted by the new administration. Despite a bunch of nonsense about autopens, presidential pardons can’t be overturned. The Trump administration certainly doesn’t want them to be, considering Trump loves issuing pardons transactionally, dispensing them to his cronies and political allies for his own advantage. So they have to find another work-around.
One possibility might be to get Fauci to commit a “crime” that is outside the window of the pardon. Like lying to HSGAC tomorrow. Only problem with that is to charge someone with perjury, they have to actually lie under oath. Fauci has never lied to HSGAC about gain of function research, the nature of the research his institute funded, or anything else.
I am confident about that because I have studied emerging coronaviruses since 2013. I’ve worked in multiple containment labs. I’ve cloned viruses and done the type of research Paul claims is illegal. I worked on MERS-CoV and flu during the moratorium from 2014-2017 on some types of respiratory virus research, because my research wasn’t subject to it. It was not a broad gain of function ban, nor does Paul define the term gain of function accurately. I am deeply familiar with US regulations and oversight for risky virology research. Fauci is correct that the moratorium didn’t apply to the work Paul implies is gain of function. Fauci is correct that it is impossible for any of the NIAID-funded work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to become SARS-CoV-2.
Now, with an assist from Tulsi Gabbard, he hit Fauci with a subpoena and is going to attempt to say that he lied about starting the pandemic. I wrote about this for Zeteo last week.
The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution protects us against being charged with made-up crimes. That’s what this is. It is a made-up crime. I felt so strongly about this that I wrote a SECOND piece at Zeteo about it.
What to expect
I have no idea. For all I know, Fauci will plead the fifth every time. I’m not a lawyer and can’t say what the best approach is for him legally. But I do think Paul and the Republicans will all take turns repeating Paul’s lies about the evidence about pandemic origins and Fauci’s role in it and many of my colleagues and friends’s supposedly conspiring to cover it up. Paul and Gabbard’s “evidence” depends on you believing that evidence proves anything about Fauci’s conduct or the origins of the pandemic. It depends on you holding a human being—sure, a flawed, imperfect, politically savvy human with a big ego who made mistakes over the course of a four-decade career but also did tremendous good. The research Fauci funded at NIAID has led to vaccines and drugs that have saved millions of lives and counting. I wouldn’t be here in this capacity without it. NIAID funded the training grant to my department for my PhD, my postdoctoral fellowship, and eventually my own lab, just like most of my American colleagues. NIAID research is a big part of why every dollar spent at NIH delivers a 2.5X return to the American economy. Or used to, before so many fewer dollars are being spent these days.
The only thing I expect for sure is lots of propaganda. MAHA Action has recruited Steve Bannon and an all-star lineup of anti-vaxxers to declare victory in the quest to punish Fauci. This is the secondary campaign to the primary campaign Paul waged for years.
No matter what this pit of vipers hisses, Fauci’s contributions are demonstrably net positive—but unfortunately Paul and virtually everyone in the MAGA universe has ignored them to focus on propaganda instead. The public needs to know that they are being lied to, and anyone who accepts the lies does so contrary to their own self-interest.
I will discuss several things no matter what:
What is the evidence that it came from the market, not the lab?
What research did Fauci fund and why is Rand Paul wrong about it being gain-of-function?
Why is “molecularly impossible” for any of these viruses starting the pandemic?
What was the relationship between US scientists and the Wuhan Institute of Virology?
What is the deal with the Proximal Origin paper?
But their Slack messages…
What does Rand Paul’s diary show? I’ll tell you what it doesn’t show. This:
See you at 8:15 am ET tomorrow, then stay tuned for a live recap with The Save America Movement afterward. Incidentally, for all of those “science shouldn’t be political” types, I agreed to serve as SAM Science Chair because they are a non-partisan organization that believes it’s not about left and right, but about wrong and right. It’s essential to stand up for what’s right, even if it’s not easy.
It is wrong for elected officials to lie to the American people for political advantage. It is wrong to use political power to exact revenge. It is wrong to prosecute people who haven’t committed a crime. Please subscribe to me and The Save America Movement to follow this. I promise to continue trying to make things more right than wrong.
BONUS READING ASSIGNMENT FROM PROFESSOR RASMUSSEN:
Five Reasons Why It Still Wasn't a Lab Leak
I haven’t been feeling well lately and haven’t been up to throwing as many punches at fascists as I’d like, which is also why it’s taken a few days—okay, more than a week—to get this up. However, when I learned that Lord Matt Ridley had been i…
I am anxious to see what Dr Fauci says in his opening remarks. That may set the tone on what he will answer from then on. Another possibility is that the Dems don't show up or maybe just one member to represent the rest I don't know. That happened with a previous committee session Rand Paul held not too long ago. The whole thing is just SO idiotic with Rand Paul and RFK Jr's obsession with an 85-yr old man who has save millions of lives.
The “science shouldn’t be political” argument is so perplexing, given everything is politics.