Back in May, I reported on a letter Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) sent to Dr. Anthony Fauci about the origins of the Wuhan coronavirus, which The Washington Post included in their coverage. Jerry Dunleavy with The Washington Examiner who has been consistently covering the issue, had an update on Friday. While the congressman did hear back from Dr. Fauci, in a letter from June 25, he is less than thrilled with the level of ignorance:
Gallagher told the Washington Examiner, “Dr. Fauci continues to hide behind highly legalistic responses that raise more questions than answers.
“Moreover, if it’s true that the man in charge of our response to the pandemic didn’t have access to the relevant intelligence, that’s extremely troubling, and we need to find out why.”
“Have you scrutinized all that the U.S. government knows about the sick researchers at the WIV, including the facts released by the State Department in January and any additional underlying intelligence or other information? If so, how so? If not, why not,” one of the questions asked.
While Dr. Fauci’s answer to that question read “I am aware of unconfirmed reports of illness in WIV personnel,” Fauci said. “I do not have in my possession, nor do I have access to, any of the non-public information,” former officials say otherwise:
A former Trump administration official told the Washington Examiner: “Dr. Fauci could easily request the underlying information as part of the Biden administration’s review of COVID origins. He should also provide his insights to the director of national intelligence review, including his view on COVID origins and WIV’s coronavirus research.”
The State Department fact sheet released in January stated Wuhan lab workers became sick with COVID-19-like symptoms in 2019, which called into question the truthfulness of the lab’s denials. The WHO-China report said Wuhan lab officials claimed “no unusual respiratory infections had been noted in the previous year” and that “no suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 was seen by PCR and antibody testing of all staff was negative.”
David Asher, the former head of a State Department task force examining COVID-19’s origins, discussed the sick lab workers in March, saying: “There is a possibility it was influenza, but I’m very doubtful that three people in highly protected circumstances in a level three laboratory working on coronaviruses would all get sick with influenza that put them in a hospital or in severe conditions all in the same week, and it didn’t have anything with the coronavirus.”
Another former State Department official told the Washington Examiner: “I believe they were hospitalized. … If those people were sick — I think they were, we know they were — and the Wuhan Institute of Virology didn’t take any measure, then that is gross negligence. If they did take measures and they still lie about it, then it’s a cover-up.”
In his answers to the five questions, Dr. Fauci referenced trusting in a World Health Organization investigation no less than three times, even and including when responding to a question where the congressman expresses concerns with “the Chinese Communist Party’s extensive coverup and lack of transparency, surrounding the origins of the pandemic.” As Rep. Gallagher has told Townhall before, the WHO investigation is “corrupted.” Nevertheless, the Biden administration still continues to put faith into the agency.
Read the full article on TownHall.