The federal government has been quietly sitting on a heap of documents about dangerous gain-of-function biological research — and Sen. Rand Paul says it’s failing to cough them up, despite that being in the public’s interest.
“What we’ve discovered is there’s a treasure trove of information about dangerous research all collected, sitting in one spot,” Paul (R-Ky.) told The Post in an exclusive interview.
He says those files could be key to unlocking exactly how COVID-19 started in Wuhan, China, and how US funds may have been involved, and he’s hopeful that the new Trump administration will help.
“We’re nearing the beginning of the real investigation because come January, with a friendly administration, we think we’re going to get all of this information,” he added.
Documents reveal the US government has been collecting information about dangerous research practices, including gain-of-function research — the practice of amplifying the active part of viruses, making them more dangerous, in order to study them — since 2012.
Paul’s office was tipped off by a whistleblower that the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has been privy to these reports for years.
The information is gathered and reviewed biannually, under a policy called US Government Policy of Oversight of Life Sciences Dual Use Research of Concern.
A document about the policy says its purpose is to gather information about “life sciences research that … could be directly misapplied to pose a significant threat with broad potential consequences to public health and safety … or national security.”
To Paul, it’s an admission that public health officials were aware that controversial research practices like gain-of-function were potentially dangerous — long before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.
Many experts have speculated COVID-19 may have been the result of gain-of-function research performed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
This was made all the worse when it emerged that funds from the US had been given to the lab. The National Institutes of Health gave EcoHealth Alliance a $4 million grant to research bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab, according to a House committee investigation. --->READ MORE HERE
 |
| Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Newscom |
When Republicans officially take control of the U.S. Senate in January, a longtime critic of the national security state and the federal government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic will helm a committee with the power to investigate both.
As the new chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) says he aims to do exactly that.
"I intend to restore our Committee's rightful place as the oversight body of the Senate," Paul wrote in a letter sent to his Senate colleagues on Thursday, shared with Reason.
Paul, who has been the top Republican on the committee for the past two years, said he would continue the committee's investigations into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Secret Service's security failures surrounding the assassination attempts against Donald Trump. He also promised "new investigations into executive branch failures and abuses, as well as conducting oversight of every dollar spent by the government."
Paul says that the committee's first tasks under his leadership will be confirming South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, as the incoming Secretary of Homeland Security and examining the possible reinstatement of the "Remain in Mexico" policy—an immigration rule implemented during the first Trump administration that required asylum-seekers to remain outside the country to await hearings in immigration courts. The Biden administration scrapped that rule after a lengthy legal battle.
But it seems likely that Paul will keep the committee's attention largely focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and the role that the federal government played in funding gain-of-function research at the lab in Wuhan, China, where the disease is believed to have originated. That's been a priority for Paul in recent years, and investigatory work led by his office helped to confirm the "lab leak" theory that public health authorities had initially dismissed.
In comments to the New York Post this week, Paul said the combination of his chairmanship on the committee and an incoming Republican administration would help secure more answers. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
Genetic clues explain why children develop rare post-COVID condition
Recovery of testing for heart disease risk factors post-COVID remains patchy, say researchers
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
If you like what you see, please "Like" and/or Follow us on FACEBOOK here, GETTR here, and TWITTER here.
No comments:
Post a Comment