Former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe told Congress on Tuesday that Anthony Fauci’s testimony under oath on gain-of-function research did not comport with the available intelligence at the time.
Appearing before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, Ratcliffe was asked by Representative Nicole Malliotakis (R., N.Y.) about Fauci’s sworn testimony before the Senate in November of 2021. In that hearing, Fauci told Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) that the NIH did not fund gain-of-function research. Malliotakis said this was despite the fact Fauci had been told in an email in January of 2021 that NIH had a monetary relationship with the Wuhan Institute through the EcoHealth Alliance. Malliotakis then asked Ratcliffe if he thought Fauci had lied under oath.
“Some of Dr. Fauci’s testimony is inconsistent with some of the intelligence that we have that remains classified as well as inconsistent with some information that is publicly available,” replied Ratcliffe.
Gain-of-function research is a controversial practice that involves making pathogens more deadly or transmissible in order to better understand current or future pandemics, and thus be able to respond faster. Funding for the research was halted in 2014 during the Obama administration due to concerns about the risks, but the NIH lifted that funding pause three years later after the creation of an oversight framework. In 2021, it emerged that U.S. taxpayers had funded such research into bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through an intermediary — that is, EcoHealth Alliance.
Fauci insisted during multiple appearances before Congress that the research conducted in Wuhan did not match the NIH’s definition of “gain-of-function,” contradicting independent experts such as Dr. Richard Ebright, who have said the experiments being performed clearly qualify as gain-of-function research. --->READ MORE HERE
The COVID-19 pandemic led to the biggest one-year drop in U.S. births in nearly 50 years. But a new study shows not every state was equally affected.
Researchers found some states experienced steep decreases in fertility while other saw little change, according to the report published last week in the peer-reviewed journal Human Reproductions.
They discovered fluctuating fertility rates in some states were more strongly linked to demographic, economic and political factors rather than COVID-19 cases, suggesting family planning could have been partly stunted by consequences of the pandemic rather than the disease itself.
“This new study offers a striking portrait of the shifting landscape of American family life,” said Brad Wilcox, professor of sociology and director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, who is unaffiliated with the study.
U.S. births had been declining for more than a decade since before COVID-19, but they dropped 4% from 2019 to 2020, according to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention. Births increased by 1% from 2020 to 2021 but haven't recovered to pre-pandemic rates. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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