Senator Rand Paul: “Smoking Gun” Connecting Fauci To Research That Led To COVID Creation

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Sen. Rand Paul accuses 15 gov’t agencies of covering up knowledge about COVID origins at Wuhan lab
The Kentucky senator said that not one of these agencies warned anyone that the Chinese lab had already put together plans to create a virus.



Sen. Rand Paul
YouTube

Apr 10, 2024
(LifeSiteNews [slightly adapted]) — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul says that officials from 15 U.S. government agencies were aware that the Chinese-run Wuhan Institute of Virology was “trying to create a coronavirus like COVID-19” yet remained silent about it.

Paul, a Republican who has represented Kentucky in the Senate since 2011, has been Congress’ most vocal critic of Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institutes of Health. Many of their combative interactions during Senate hearings over the past five years have gone viral on social media.

Paul published an op-ed for Fox News this week alleging to have uncovered what some have called “smoking gun” evidence that shows Fauci and more than a dozen government agencies essentially lied about collaborating with China.

“These officials knew that the Chinese lab was proposing to create a COVID 19-like virus and not one of these officials revealed this scheme to the public,” Paul wrote. “In fact, 15 agencies with knowledge of this project have continuously refused to release any information concerning this alarming and dangerous research.”

Paul alleges that the agencies were made aware of an initiative by British Dr. Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that Paul has said received millions in taxpayer dollars, in conjunction with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The project, dubbed the “DEFUSE” project, aimed to create a coronavirus “that would have been shockingly similar to the COVID-19 virus.”

“For years, I have been fighting to obtain records from dozens of federal agencies relating to the origins of COVID-19 and the DEFUSE project,” Paul wrote. “Under duress, the administration finally released documents that show that the DEFUSE project was pitched to at least 15 agencies in January 2018.”

“Disturbingly, not one of these 15 agencies spoke up to warn us that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been pitching this research. Not one of these agencies warned anyone that this Chinese lab had already put together plans to create such a virus.”

EcoHealth issued a press release on August 9 disputing Paul’s findings. The group said that they “did submit a proposal for a project named DEFUSE” but that it was declined and that it was “never submitted to any other federal agencies for consideration.” The statement also says EcoHealth “did not support ‘gain-of-function’ research” at the Wuhan Institute.

Investigative reporter John Stossel exposed the connection between EcoHealth, Dr. Fauci, and the Wuhan lab during a story he did on Paul’s findings.

Paul maintains that Daszak “concealed” information about the proposal during previous Congressional testimony. He also says Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases “was not only briefed on Wuhan’s desire to create this virus, [it] was actually listed as a participant in the initial DEFUSE pitch. Fauci’s Rocky Mountain Lab was named as a partner alongside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the proposal.”

Paul credits Lt. Col. Joseph Murphy, a whistleblower, for informing the public about the DEFUSE project.

“Likely, hundreds of people in the government knew of this proposal to create a COVID-19-like virus and virtually every one of these people chose to keep quiet, to obscure, and ultimately to conceal information that might have saved lives by letting the world know this was no sleepy animal virus with poor transmission,” he wrote. “All evidence suggests COVID-19 was a laboratory-enhanced virus purposefully adapted for human transmission.

Paul believes those who have “covered up” the DEFUSE project “should be punished but likely won’t.”

“At the very least … the perpetrators should be made to admit the truth and Congress should finally put in place sufficient oversight to make sure dangerous gain of function experiments are sufficiently vetted and, if necessary, prevented.”