Mehdi Hasan Presses Anthony Fauci on NIH’s Reported Funding of Gain-of-Function Research in China

MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan pressed Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday night over a Sept. 9 report from The Intercept that alleged that the National Institutes of Health, which he oversees, funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus may have originated.

Based on documents they had obtained, The Intercept reported:

…the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the nearby Wuhan University Center for Animal Experiment, along with their collaborator, the U.S.-based nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance, have engaged in what the U.S. government defines as “gain-of-function research of concern,” intentionally making viruses more pathogenic or transmissible in order to study them, despite stipulations from a U.S. funding agency that the money not be used for that purpose.

Grant money for the controversial experiment came from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is headed by Anthony Fauci. The award to EcoHealth Alliance, a research organization which studies the spread of viruses from animals to humans, included subawards to Wuhan Institute of Virology and East China Normal University. The principal investigator on the grant is EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak, who has been a key voice in the search for Covid-19’s origins.

“The NIH funded studies which were highly, highly peer-reviewed and felt to be very important to understand what the risk is…,” continued Fauci, who was interrupted by Hasan after he said “understand,” though Fauci responded, “Now let me finish because no one ever lets me finish and they go on and talk about what gain of function is” – an apparent shot at Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who has sparred with Fauci in committee hearings about the NIH apparently funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan.

“That was done under very strict guidelines. Then all of a sudden someone comes in and says, “I don’t like your guidelines,’” said Fauci. “Even though it took three years from the National Academy of Sciences, the NSABB, the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House to come up with these strict guardrails, which were followed very carefully. Then someone comes along and says, “You know, I don’t like that definition and according to my definition, you did ‘gain-of-function.’”

Hasan, who said he didn’t want to get into an argument with Fauci about the definition of gain-of-function research asked the nation’s top infectious diseases expert whether the documents The Intercept obtained “make you think twice about any of the funding or research that was done, that this is kind of dangerous stuff, potentially dangerous. Does it not ring any questions about oversight or funding of whatever you want to call it, gain-of-whatever-name-we-give-it?”

“If you’re going to give me some seconds to answer, I’ll be happy to,” said Fauci, tongue-in-cheek. “And it’s like this: The NIH is totally open that if people have a problem with the guardrails that were put into place by three years of a deliberative process in good faith by people ranging from all areas including the National Academy of Sciences, I’m fine with relooking at it.”

“If [critics] feel that those guardrails should be changed, then let’s change them. But what we’re seeing now is that after three years,” he continued, using an analogy of a speed limit being 40 mph and someone wanting it to be 30 mph in which they accuse those of going 40 mph of breaking the law. Fauci’s message to his critics was that he and the NIH have not been violating the law.

Watch above, via Peacock.