Former CDC Director tells Malliotakis American Tax Dollars Helped Develop COVID & Fauci Suppressed Debate on Virus Origins

(WASHINGTON, DC) - Today Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11), a member of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, questioned former Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Robert Redfield about the origins of COVID-19 and Dr. Anthony Fauci's efforts to debunk the lab-leak theory.

In his testimony, Redfield confirmed Fauci not only suppressed debate among America's top scientists, but said U.S. tax dollars likely funded the gain-of-function research that developed COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, including funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

Malliotakis' exchange with Redfield is summarized below.

Dr. Redfield, you pointed to the lab leak theory even before we did. In mid-January of 2020, you expressed concerns to Dr. Fauci, to Jeremy Farrar of the UK's Welcome Trust, and Dr. Ghebreyesus of the World Health Organization that 'we had to take the lab-leak hypothesis with extreme seriousness,' and you urged Dr. Fauci to investigate both the lab and the natural hypotheses. Shortly thereafter, on February 1, Farrar convened a meeting of a group of 11 top scientists across 5 time zones and asked Dr. Fauci to join...Why do you think you were excluded from this conversation?

"It was told to me that they wanted a single narrative and that I obviously had a different point of view."

In emails following the conference call, 4 of the 11 scientists told Fauci that they all found the genetic sequence “inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory.” However just 3 days later, these 4 scientists had drafted a paper arguing the exact opposite, the now infamous Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2. Our investigations show that this paper was prompted by Dr. Fauci among others with the goal of disproving the lab leak theory. What is the likelihood that these scientists came across “additional information” just 3 days after making these statements to conclude with such certainty that COVID-19 came from nature instead of the lab leak?

"This whole approach that was taken on February 1st and subsequently in the month of February, if you really want to be truthful, it's antithetical to science. Science has debate and they squashed any debate."

Given what we know now, and looking at all the conversations in February of 2020 and before the release of the paper, do you think Dr. Fauci used this paper to hide the gain-of-function research that created this virus?

"I can't talk about Fauci's motivations."

Do you think that the paper does hide the truth?

"I think it's an inaccurate paper that basically was part of a narrative that they were creating. Remember, this pandemic did not start in January at the seafood market. We now know there were infections all the way back into September. This was a narrative that was decided - they were going to say this came from the wet market and they were going to do everything they could to support it to negate any discussion about the possibility that this came from a laboratory."

Dr. Fauci was affirmatively told in an email that NIAID had a monetary relationship with the Wuhan Institute through EcoHealth Alliance. Do you think Fauci intentionally lied under oath to Senator Paul when he vehemently denied NIH’s funding of gain-of-function research? 

"I think there's no doubt that NIH was funding gain-of-function research."

Is it likely that American tax dollars funded the gain-of-function research that created this virus?

"I think it did - not only from NIH, but from the State Department, USAID and from DoD."

WATCH MALLIOTAKIS' REMARKS HERE