WaPo: Forget the Paul-Fauci sideshow -- NIH clearly collaborated on dangerous research with Chinahttps://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2021/07/23/wapo-forget-the-paul-fauci-sideshow-nih-clearly-collaborated-on-dangerous-research-with-china-n404186Will Rand Paul succeed in his criminal referral for perjury? Will Anthony Fauci press a slander claim? All of that might make for good fodder for punditry, Washington Post reporter Josh Rogin argues in a new column, but like their dispute, it mostly misses the point.
The real issue isn’t a narrow definition of “gain of function” when it comes to viral research. It’s that the National Institute of Health collaborated on clearly dangerous research with a country that lacked the expertise to conduct it, and the openness to deal with any consequences of it. And, Rogin warns, they’re going to do it again unless we focus on the real issue rather than the technicalities:
But it doesn’t matter which “gain of function” definition you prefer. What everyone can now see clearly is that NIH was collaborating on risky research with a Chinese lab that has zero transparency and zero accountability during a crisis — and no one in a position of power addressed that risk. Fauci is arguing the system worked. It didn’t. Even if the lab leak theory isn’t true, what’s clear is that we need more oversight of this risky research, both in the United States and in China.
Fauci also told Paul there’s no possibility the research in the paper Paul cited directly led to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but Paul correctly called this out as a straw man. That specific project was only one element of the U.S. government multiagency effort that for years pumped U.S. money and know-how into these Wuhan labs, via the EcoHealth Alliance, including NIH, USAID and the Pentagon. According to an intelligence fact sheet released by the Trump administration and partially confirmed by the Biden administration, the WIV took our help and used it to build another, secret part of the lab, where they worked with the Chinese military.
I'm neither Paulbot nor Paul-Hater, but without Rand Paul's actions of spotlighting NIAID's money-laundered funding of high-risk research at a lab without adequate protections or expertise to prevent, contain, and deal with leaks and exposing Fauci's word-gaming denials, people in the US couldn't have discussions about whether such research should be funded. Rand Paul's manhandling of Fauci was no side-show, it was the main event under the bigtop!
