Editors at the Washington Examiner highlight the latest controversy surrounding chief COVID scold Anthony Fauci.
Former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci has already been caught lying about COVID-19 many times. Now newly released emails from his longtime colleague Dr. David Morens, a senior adviser to the director at the National Institutes of Health, show a broad-based conspiracy, including involvement from disgraced Department of Health and Human Services contractor Dr. Peter Daszak, to cover up the trio’s role in facilitating gain-of-function research at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The 150 emails released by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic show Morens knowingly and intentionally attempted to conceal evidence embarrassing to himself, Fauci, and Daszak. These efforts included deleting sensitive emails, conducting official business on a private email account, and strategically misspelling keywords to escape the reach of the Freedom of Information Act.
“I learned from our NIH FOIA lady here how to make emails disappear after I am FOIA but before the search starts so I think we’re all safe,” Morens wrote in one email. “Plus I deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to Gmail.”
The emails also suggest Fauci was knowingly involved in the cover-up, with Morens claiming he could help Fauci avoid FOIA accountability: “I can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail, or hand it to him.”
The emails also show that Morens previously lied to the committee. Previously, Morens had testified under oath that he did not recall discussing Daszak’s grants from NIAID to the WIV with Fauci. In his testimony Wednesday, Morens admitted that was false. “I certainly told him some things that he asked me to tell him about the situation with Peter [Daszak],” Morens testified.
The emails also show Morens shared confidential NIH information (marked “For Official Use Only”) with Daszak.
