Dr Anthony Fauci under fire as House Committee report reveals NIAID hid plans for mutant monkeypox virus

WASHINGTON, DC: A recent report indicates that Dr. Anthony Fauci's former department misled Congress about its plans to create a monkeypox virus that could potentially cause a pandemic.

According to DailyMail, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) put forth plans to develop a more transmissible and lethal strain of monkeypox in 2015, during Dr Fauci's tenure at the agency.

These plans gained widespread attention only in late 2022, fueled by speculation regarding the origins of COVID-19 and its potential connections to similar experiments funded by the US government in China.

The blueprint to create a mutant monkeypox virus raised significant concerns among experts. It prompted an investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which recently disclosed the findings from its year-and-a-half-long inquiry this week.

What did the House Energy and Commerce Committee report reveal?

The report stated that the HHS, NIAID, and NIH continually “obstructed and misled the committee” about whether the dangerous experiments had been approved and carried out, calling their participation in the investigation "unacceptable and potentially criminal."

According to investigators, “HHS and the NIH repeatedly told the Committee the... experiments had not been 'formally proposed' or 'planned,' had never been approved or conducted, and were not currently under consideration.”

“[These] repeated assertions were false,” the report added.

They went on to say that NIAID, an arm of the NIH, shouldn't be trusted to do this type of research.

“The primary conclusion drawn at this point in the investigation is that NIAID cannot be trusted to oversee its own research of pathogens responsibly,” the report stated.

“It cannot be trusted to determine whether an experiment on a potential pandemic pathogen or enhanced potential pandemic pathogen poses unacceptable biosafety risk or a serious public health threat,” they asserted.

The monkeypox virus, belonging to the same family of viruses as smallpox, manifests as a rash and flu-like symptoms.

In 2022, a global outbreak of monkeypox was infecting tens of thousands of individuals.

There are two types of monkeypox viruses: Clade I, associated with severe illness and a historical fatality rate of up to 11%, and Clade II, the strain responsible for the 2022 outbreak, characterized by higher transmissibility but lower severity, with nearly 100% survival rate.

In October 2022, a group of government scientists proposed the introduction of genes from Clade I Mpox into Clade II to create a hybrid strain.

The resulting virus would potentially exhibit increased lethality and transmissibility.

This approach was identified as gain-of-function research, associated with the creation of more virulent and transmissible viruses, similar to concerns surrounding the origin of COVID-19.

The estimated fatality rate of the proposed hybrid strain was up to 15%, with a reproductive rate of 2.4, indicating significant potential for rapid transmission. Under these conditions, the hybrid strain would pose a pandemic threat.

What did Dr Fauci say previously surrounding the probe?

The House Committee report findings follow recent testimony from Dr Fauci concerning the origins of Covid. Some government agencies believe that the COVID-19 virus may have resulted from risky gain-of-function research conducted in China and funded by the US, including NIAID.

Dr Fauci has maintained that his agency was not involved in gain-of-function experiments in China. However, the lack of transparency regarding Mpox research raises doubts about the reliability of the information provided by the HHS, NIH, and NIAID.

Researchers said that their experiments would have helped understand how specific genes make monkeypox more lethal and could have facilitated the development of improved drugs and vaccines.

However, Dr Richard Ebright, a microbiologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, cautioned that the altered virus presented "an extremely high risk" to the public if it were to inadvertently escape.

The team in Maryland argued that their work did not aim to “enhance” a pathogen because they were looking to exchange natural mutations rather than create new ones. This meant that the hybrid virus could not be deadlier than the existing clades.

Nevertheless, the news surprised experts and the general public, raising concerns that such research was still being conducted in the United States, despite fears that similar practices may have led to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite receiving approval, researchers assert that the work was never carried out. However, the report indicates that “HHS has repeatedly refused to produce any documents that corroborate this claim.”

The House committee is now requesting additional evidence from HHS, NIAID, and the NIH to confirm that the controversial experiments were never conducted.

Dr Ebright told the aforementioned outlet, “A laboratory-generated monkeypox virus... more lethal than, and as transmissible as the monkeypox virus currently circulating in humans potentially would defeat protection by vaccines and likely would spread beyond current at-risk populations to the general population.”

The spread of Monkeypox can result from contact with infected animals or close proximity to an infected individual.

Currently, there is no FDA-approved treatment for Mpox, with available therapies focusing on symptom management.

However, a vaccine does exist to offer protection against the virus. In the United States, an outbreak of Mpox took place in May 2022, part of a larger global outbreak originating from the Clade II strain prevalent in West Africa.

According to the most recent data from the CDC as of January 2024, there have been 32,000 cases of monkeypox in the US, resulting in 58 deaths. Globally, the outbreak has led to 95,900 cases.

In October 2022, an investigation began, during which the involved agencies declined to respond to inquiries. It was only after subpoena threats that the agencies finally provided documents for examination by lawmakers in March 2024, confirming the approval of the experiments.

Subsequent to their findings, investigators suggested the establishment of an oversight board to review NIAID-funded research on dangerous pathogens and proposed transitioning final approval for gain-of-function research from NIAID to another entity.

Dr Anthony Fauci slammed after a House Committee report suggests NIAD hid plans to create mutant monkeypox virus

One X user remarked, "Dr Fauci = Frankenstein."

Another user said, "He is complicit He must go to JAIL hopefully for the REST of his life."

Another user wrote, "He evidently thinks he can play God. Hmm."

One X user claimed, "When is this guy going to jail. Anyone still supporting him at this stage is nuts." [sic]

Another user snarked, "Trust the science, though. They only care about your health. How can anyone believe this still?"

Finally, this user tweeted, "No one should be allowed to have such control in govt for such a long period of time. This guy was a menace to the human race. Put limits on such power."

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