News (1)
Tucker: Fauci's emails merit 'criminal investigation, he may have committed 'perjury' in confrontation with Rand Paul
Reporter : Tom Pappert / Source : The National File / Image : Video Screenshot
The newly released trove containing 3,200 pages of emails from Anthony Fauci reveals the COVID-19 Task Force leader appeared deeply worried about “gain of function” research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, paid for at Fauci’s insistence. When a researcher emailed Fauci about this, he responded by sending an email with an attachment that appeared to acknowledge the “gain of function” research happening in Wuhan, China prior to the emergence of COVID-19.
As Fauci sent a PDF attachment seemingly containing information about the “gain of function” research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Carlson says his claim to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) that he did not authorize such research “looks a lot like perjury.” In a separate email, Fauci seemed concerned about a ZeroHedge article suggesting COVID-19 may have been created in a laboratory and then released – perhaps accidentally – on the unwitting citizens of Wuhan, and then the rest of the planet.
“For the crime of saying that out loud, a more plausible explanation, ZeroHedge was banned from social media platforms,” noted Carlson. “Until recently you were not allowed to suggest that COVID might be man made. Why couldn’t you suggest that? The fact checkers wouldn’t allow it. Why wouldn’t they? Because Tony Fauci assured the tech monopolies that the coronavirus could not have been man made, and so the tech monopolies shut down the topic.” As National File reported earlier today, Zuckerberg sent an email promising to leverage the power of Facebook to help Fauci serve his narratives to an audience numbering in the billions, with one of Fauci’s subordinates characterizing the opportunity as more powerful than television.
Carlson then wondered, noting that much of the emails are redacted because they may be used for a criminal investigation, whether Fauci and one of his Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers are under “criminal investigation.” Carlson continued, “We can only hope they are. They certainly deserve it.” Carlson then highlighted several instances of Fauci’s emails contradicting his public claims about mask wearing and vaccines.
In his private emails, Fauci repeatedly told friends and colleagues that surgical or cloth face masks were useless, as the COVID-19 particles were too small to be blocked by simple cloth. At the same time, publicly, Fauci was suggesting Americans wear at least one face mask, and eventually, two face masks simultaneously.
Similarly, in his private emails, Fauci admitted that individuals who contracted COVID-19 and recovered – approximately 100 million Americans, as Carlson noted – are likely to be immune to the disease, and there is no scientific research indicating they are not. Publicly, however, Fauci has repeatedly stressed that all Americans, including those who contracted COVID-19 and recovered, should accept one of the controversial COVID-19 vaccines.
Questioning why Fauci’s public statements contradict his private emails, Carlson considered Fauci’s apparent close relationship with Bill Gates. “The emails show Tony Fauci speaks regularly to Bill Gates. That’s odd, Bill Gates is not a doctor, Bill Gates is not a scientist. Bill Gates is a very rich man who made billions making mediocre software for office computers,” noted Carlson. “Has Bill Gates profited in any way from Fauci’s COVID guidance? That would definitely be worth knowing immediately, and yet we don’t know, our media don’t seem interested in finding out.” Carlson concluded, “Tony Fauci is a figure of religious veneration. He is Jesus for people who don’t believe in God.”
In his private emails, Fauci repeatedly told friends and colleagues that surgical or cloth face masks were useless, as the COVID-19 particles were too small to be blocked by simple cloth. At the same time, publicly, Fauci was suggesting Americans wear at least one face mask, and eventually, two face masks simultaneously.
News (2) to (16) / Reporters : Christopher Eberhart and Emily Crane / Source : Daily Mail
News (2)
Fauci downplays on China's role in "gain of function" research in Wuhan and the possibility of the lab leak
Original Title: Fauci DEFENDS China and says it's 'far fetched' to think they'd 'deliberately engineer something to kill themselves' - as he doubles down on animal origins of COVID and dismisses 'out-of-context' smoking gun emails
Dr. Anthony Fauci doubled down on claims that the coronavirus likely originated from an animal then was transmitted to humans in a Thursday morning interview on CNN, despite increasing speculation that it leaked from a China lab.
Fauci, who served under former President Trump and President Joe Biden, continues to fight the idea that he downplayed theories that the virus originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology after a trove of emails exchange at the beginning of the pandemic revealed he was warned about a potential lab leak.
'I have always said and will say today to you ... that I still believe the most likely origin is from an animal species to a human,' Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday on CNN.
Although he said he's keeping an open mind about the possibility of a lab leak, Fauci said it was 'far-fetched' to think the Chinese would kill their own people.
'The idea, I think, is quite far-fetched that the Chinese deliberately engineered something so that they could kill themselves, as well as other people. I think that’s a bit far out.'
News (3)
Fauci: It is in China's interest to find out the exact cause of the pandemic
In a separate Thursday morning interview on MSNBC, Fauci said they want to definitively find the cause of the coronavirus pandemic - whatever that origin is - but pointing the finger at China isn't going to help.
'It's in China's interest to find out exactly what it is,' Fauci said. 'Obviously, you want openness and cooperation. One of the ways to get it is not to be accusatory. Try to get a forensic, scientific and investigational approach. I think the accusatory part about it is only going to make (China) pull back more.'
Fauci was asked during the MSNBC interview if he thought it was in China's best interest to hide information if the origin was a lab leak or if it was designing a weapon.
He sidestepped, saying no matter what he says, 'it will be taken completely out of context,' which he said has already happened after more than 3,200 of his emails from January to June 2020 were obtained and published by Buzzfeed on Tuesday.
Image : Stefani Reynolds/Pool via Reuters
News (4)
Fauci played down claims of virus creation in Wuhan lab
The emails showed leading virus experts warned him COVID-19 may have been created in a lab while he publicly played such claims down.
Many emails were redacted, and Fauci was asked during the Thursday morning interview on CNN if he remembers what was said.
'They only took about 10,000 emails from me. Of course, I remember. I remember all 10,000 of them,' he said sarcastically. 'Give me a break.'
In an interview with NewsNation Now anchor Leland Vittert on The Donlon Report, Fauci said the emails 'are really ripe to be taken out of context where someone can snip out a sentence in an email without showing the other emails, and say 'based on an email from Dr. Fauci, he said such and such' where you don't really have the full context.'
Fauci also explained on NewsNation why scientists focused their theories on the natural transmission from bats to humans through an intermediary species.
News (5)
Fauci cannot guarantee everything that is going on in the Wuhan lab
The under-fire chief medical advisor to the president has dismissed revelations that he was warned at the start of pandemic that COVID-19 may have been 'engineered', and claimed Trump supporters 'resent' him because they do not 'understand' science.
He has now acknowledged he 'can't guarantee everything that is going on in the Wuhan lab' amid increasing speculation it did not occur naturally.
Fauci, who has been a frequent target of Trump and his supporters for dismissing the theory, claims he was never 'anti-Trump'.
News (6)
Fauci: Science is a self-correcting process
Speaking with MSNBC's Deadline on Wednesday evening, Fauci said: 'There is no doubt that there are people out there who, for one reason or another, resent me for what I did in the last administration, which was not anything that was anti-Trump at all.
'It was just trying to get the right information, to try and get the right data. What they didn't seem to understand, I guess that it is understandable that they didn't understand it, is that science is a dynamic process.
'So something that you know in January, you make a recommendation or a comment about it, but as you get more and more information, the information leads you to change because that is what science is, it is a self-correcting process.
'That is what I was trying to do, always tell the truth on the basis of what the data is. It was never deliberately something against the president.'
News (7)
Fauci defended his relationship with Gao Fu and the research on SARS
Another trove of emails, published by the Washington Post, also revealed his cozy relationship with China's top infectious disease expert Dr. George Gao - the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention - during the early days of the pandemic in March and April of last year.
'Let's put things in context ... We're not talking about the Chinese Communist Party. We're not talking about the Chinese military. We're talking about scientists that we've had relationships for years,' Fauci said to Vittert.
Fauci then defended his relationship with Gao, a colleague of Fauci's 'for many years' and a member of the United States National Academy of Scientists.
'The scientists there, and others that we dealt with the original SARS, with the influenza virtually every year, the scientists are experienced,' Fauci said.
He also defended a grant the United States provided the Wuhan lab, which has raised concerns that American money may have helped pay for the alleged creation of virus at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
'The Wuhan lab is a very large lab to the tune of hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars. The grant that we're talking about was $600,000 over five years for an average of about $125,000 to $140,000 a year,' Fauci said.
He added: 'I can't guarantee everything that is going on in the Wuhan lab, I can't do that. But it is our obligation as scientists and public health individuals to study the animal-human interface' in the aftermath of the original SARS virus in 2002.
Fauci explained that SARS-CoV-1 'was clearly a jumping of species from a bat, to a civet cat, to a human.'
'So it was incumbent upon us to study the animal-human interface and to understand what potential these viruses have of infecting humans which then might damage the United States,' Fauci said.
'So you don't want to go to Hoboken, New Jersey or to Fairfax, Virginia to be studying the bat human interface that might lead to an outbreak. You go to China.'
News (8)
Fauci clarifies his stance on mask-wearing
During the interview, Fauci also defended the government's early messages telling Americans not wear masks before nationwide mask mandates were later ordered.
In one email, Fauci had said: 'The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material.'
Responding to questions about that email, Fauci said: 'Let me explain, and it is a complicated issue. At the time we were saying it wasn't necessary to wear masks there were three things that were going on.'
'One of them was, there was a consideration that there was a shortage of personal protective equipment, particularly among people who actually needed the mask – those who were taking care of patients in the hospital.
'So we didn't want to have people running to the stores and getting N95 and other masks. So I should have probably been more explicit, you're right, and said that there are a number of aspects to it – including the poor fitting.'
In March 2020, Gao had told Science magazine that it was a 'big mistake' for U.S. experts including Fauci to tell their citizens that they did not need to wear face masks.
A subsequent email shows that Gao was anxious as to how Fauci would interpret the remark.
He messaged Fauci on March 28 saying: 'I saw the Science interview... That was journalist's wording. Hope you understand. Lets work together to get the virus out of the earth.'
Fauci warmly replied: 'I understand completely. No problem. We will get through this together.'
On April 3, Fauci formally reversed his stance on mask-wearing, telling Americans that they should cover their noses and mouths to stop the spread. The top doctor was slammed by numerous pundits and millions of Americans for giving mixed messages.
He later said he did so to try and prevent members of the public panic-buying masks when hospitals were struggling to obtain adequate supplies of PPE.
Less than a week later, Gao emailed Fauci again expressing his support amid the onslaught of attacks.
'I saw some news (hope it is fake) that you are being attacked by some people. Hope you are well under such a irrational situation,' Gao wrote on April 8.
'Thank you for your kind note. All is well despite some crazy people in this world,' Fauci replied three days later.
News (9)
It is unlikely COVID-19 will be eradicated
Fauci also admitted during the interview that he doesn't believe COVID-19 will ever be fully eradicated.
'I don't believe we will ever fully eradicate SARS-COV-2, I hope we will be able to eliminate it or greatly control it in this country,' he said.
Fauci was warned that the coronavirus was possibly 'engineered' in a lab before the pandemic started and seemed to be taking it seriously behind closed doors while downplaying the idea in public.
News (10)
Unusual features of SARS-CoV-2 revealed a "massive cover-up"
In a Jan. 31, 2020 email - more than two months before the World Health Organization characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic - Fauci forwarded a copy of Science magazine article titled 'Mining coronavirus genomes for clues to the outbreak's origins' to two people.
U.S. virus researcher Kristian Andersen and Sir Jeremy Farrar, who runs a global health charity in Britain, were on the receiving end of the email.
'This just came out today. You may have seen it. If not, it is of interest to the current discussion,' wrote Fauci, the longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Andersen, who runs a viral genomics lab at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, wrote back, 'The problem is that our phylogenetic analyses aren't able to answer whether the sequences are unusual at individual residues, except if they are completely off.
'The unusual features of the virus make up a really small part of the genome (<0.1%) so one has to look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features (potentially) look engineered.'
Andersen also noted that he and others 'all find the genome inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory' but added that 'there are still further analyses to be done, so those opinions could still change.'
On March 30 and April 1, Andersen sent dozens of tweets in a thread after the World Health Organization released its report about the origin of the coronavirus.
In the thread, he included a tweet saying, 'First of all, I have very carefully considered the possibility of a lab leak, dating back to January, 2020. A committee under the White House OSTP/NASEM was set up in response to these enquiries and I remain a member of that committee today.'
On Wednesday, after Fauci's emails went viral, Andersen tweeted a reply to Australian reporter Sharri Markson downplaying the idea of a cover up.
'I know it's super mundane, but it isn't actually a 'massive cover-up,' Sharri. It's just science. Boring, I know, but it's quite a helpful thing to have in times of uncertainty,' Andersen tweeted.
Two days later - February 2, 2020 - Farar sent an email to Fauci and other US health officials sent a ZeroHedge article wit the headline 'Coronavirus Contains 'HIV Insertions,' Stocking Fears Over Artificially Created Bioweapon.'
The emails show Fauci received 'a flurry of correspondence about the theory that coronavirus leaked from a lab in Wuhan,' Buzzfeed reported, including one email sent to Fauci on April 16, 2020 by Francis Collins.
Collins, the director of the National Institute of Health, wrote 'conspiracy gains momentum' in the subject line and included a link to a Mediaite news article referencing comments made a day earlier about the Wuhan lab leak theory by Fox News anchor Bret Baier. The contents of Collins' email was redacted.
Fauci replied on April 17 at 2.45am but his response also was blacked out. Fauci requested a 'quick call' with Collins in one of his earlier replies.
News (11)
Mounting evidence of accidental leak from Wuhan lab
The other email recipients included NIH Deputy Director Dr. Lawrence Tabak, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Deputy Director Clifford Lane and NIH spokesman John Burklow.
The story linked in Collins' original email was based on an April 15 broadcast on Fox News during which Baier told fellow anchor Sean Hannity that 'multiple sources' believed COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab before accidentally escaping.
'This is from multiple sources who have been briefed at the beginning part of the origins of China and the beginning of the virus. They've also seen documents, open source and classified,' Baier said.
'We've asked to see those documents directly, but they are saying that it is increasingly likely, that there is increasing confidence that the virus - COVID-19 - started in a Wuhan lab.
'They're saying it occurred naturally because China was trying to show that they could be as good or better than the US in handling viruses, discovering viruses, and that this was a botched effort to contain this and it got out to the population.
'They are 100 percent confident that China altered the data, the statistics, they did a lot of things to contain the information. Meanwhile, they cut down, as you mentioned, travel from Wuhan internally, but left the international flights going, and there obviously is how you have a spread like this.'
Evidence has been mounting of late that supports the theory that the pandemic began as an accidental leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Biden last week ordered a 90-day intelligence review to investigate the possibility and several high-profile public health experts have come out in recent months saying they believe that's how COVID-19 started.
News (12)
The virus was adapted in a laboratory, the possibility of a laboratory accident
Former CDC director Robert Redfield told CNN in March that he believes the virus 'escaped' from a Wuhan lab and started spreading as early as September 2019.
Fauci later dismissed Redfield's belief when asked about them at a White House COVID-19 briefing - noting that if the virus had been circulating for months it would make the assertion that it came from a lab less likely.
'So when you think about the possibilities of how this virus appeared in the human population, obviously there are a number of theories,' Fauci said in the briefing.
'The issue that would have someone think it's possible to have escaped from a lab would mean that it essentially entered the outside human population already well adapted to humans, suggesting that it was adapted in the lab.'
However, Fauci said that most public health officials believe that the virus was actually circulating in China for a month or more before they were clinically recognized at the end of December 2019.
'If that were the case, the virus clearly could have adapted itself to a greater efficiency of transmissibility over that period of time up to and at the time it was recognized,' Fauci said.
'So, Dr. Redfield was mentioning that he was giving an opinion as to a possibility. But, again, there are other alternatives — others that most people hold by.'
Even Collins has appeared to change his tune as recently as last month while speaking to senators when he told them the Wuhan lab leak theory couldn't be completely ruled out.
'It is most likely that this is a virus that arose naturally, but we cannot exclude the possibility of some kind of a lab accident,' he said.
There is continued discussion over whether COVID is a naturally-occurring virus or a more sinister genetically-modified virus that was meant to be confined to the Wuhan institute that leaked by accident.
Claims that the virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology have been laughed off as conspiracy theories - but researchers at a number of top universities like Harvard and Cambridge have suggest in a letter that the 'hypotheses' cannot be ruled out until there is more evidence.
New evidence, including reports of three workers at the Wuhan lab who fell seriously ill with COVID-like symptoms in November 2019, has forced a sober reassessment among doubters.
China continues to furiously deny that the virus behind COVID-19 escaped from its lab in the original epicenter, accusing the United States of taking a 'dangerous stance' in calling for a full investigation into the possibility.
News (13)
Fauci admits NIH funded gain of function research in Wuhan before the epidemic
Republican Sen. Rand Paul demanded Dr. Anthony Fauci be fired and claimed that he lied to him about gain-of-function research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that was allegedly funded by the United States.
Paul appeared on Fox News' The Ingraham Angle where he claimed that thousands of emails revealed by Buzzfeed News and the Washington Post proved Fauci may have been in-part responsible for the development of COVID-19.
At a Senate hearing last month, Paul accused the National Institutes of Health of funding Chinese research into bat coronaviruses that infect humans
But Fauci told Paul: 'You are entirely and completely incorrect. The NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute.'
On Wednesday, the junior senator from Kentucky said that Fauci bears 'moral culpability' while asserting that COVID-19 was created by the Wuhan Institute of Virology through funding from the NIH, a theory which has not been proven.
News (14)
Accidental leak cannot be ruled out until there is more evidence
Scientists have primarily focused their beliefs about COVID-19 on the theory that it spread naturally from a bat to an intermediary animal before infecting humans.
Claims that the virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology have been laughed off as conspiracy theories - but even researchers at a number of top universities like Harvard and Cambridge have suggested in a letter that the 'hypotheses' cannot be ruled out until there is more evidence.
In gain-of-function research, scientists alter organisms and diseases to study how they could become deadlier or more transmissible. The field of virology widely relies on such studies.
Fauci, who serves as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under the umbrella of the NIH, has denied that the NIH directly funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan.
News (15)
Worries about Fauci funding gain of function research in Wuhan gaining momentum
However, Paul asserted to Fox News host Laura Ingraham that the recently reveals emails show Fauci admitted to funding gain-of-function research.
'I think we've had a sea change of opinion. Everybody left-of-center was saying this was a conspiracy, no way it could have happened in the Wuhan lab. Now even Dr. Fauci is saying we should investigate it,' Paul said.
'But the emails paint a disturbing picture, a disturbing picture of Dr. Fauci form the very beginning worrying that he had been funding gain of function research. And he knows it to this day but hasn't admitted it.'
Paul claimed in the interview that 'there is a lot of evidence' that Fauci's views on the Wuhan lab-leak theory were compromised by a 'conflict of interest.'
'If it turns out this virus came from the Wuhan lab, which it looks like it did, that there's a great deal of culpability in that he was a big supporter of the funding,' Paul said.
'But he was also a big supporter to this day of saying that we can trust the Chinese on this, that we can trust Chinese scientists and I think that's quite naïve and really should preclude him form the position that he's in.'
The NIH awarded a $3.7 million grant to EcoHealth Alliance, which is based in the United States, to study the risk of coronaviruses emerging from bats in 2014. EcoHealth Alliance in turn distributed nearly $600,000 of that funding to its collaborator, the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Paul claimed during the Fox News interview that Fauci's emails show he was worried the NIH funded gain-of-function research as early as last February during the emergence of the pandemic.
'In his email, in the subject line, he says 'gain of function research.' He was admitting it to his private underlings seven to eight months ago,' Paul said.
In a February 1, 2020 email obtained by Buzzfeed News, Principal NIAID Director Hugh Auschincloss wrote to Fauci to discuss a paper the top infectious disease expert had sent him appearing to question if NIH grants funded gain of function research relating to coronaviruses.
In the email to Fauci, Auschincloss noted that a colleague would 'try to determine if we have any distant ties to this work abroad.'
When Ingraham asked Paul if Fauci could face criminal culpability, he replied: 'At the very least, there is moral culpability.'
News (16)
Fauci's public and private sentiments were aligned
Dr. Anthony Fauci's emails reveal the contrast between his public and private sentiments, showing what the top infectious disease expert said behind the scenes.
The trove of emails obtained through public records requests and published on Tuesday by Buzzfeed and the Washington Post offers a rare glimpse behind the curtain as Fauci responded to the pandemic last year.
Often, his public and private sentiments were aligned, such as his skepticism about the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19.
At times they diverged, including his collegial tone with Chinese counterparts even as he publicly criticized China for withholding information in the early days of the pandemic.
The emails shed little light on Fauci's views on the origin of the pandemic, but reveal that he received multiple warnings that the virus showed signs of laboratory tampering.
News Analysis
Top U.S. health officials, including Anthony Fauci, scrambled in late January 2020 to respond to public reporting of a potential connection between COVID-19 and the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
The insight into their response comes from examining more than 3,000 pages of emails belonging to Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which were released under the Freedom of Information Act and provide a detailed timeline of events.
The emails suggest the officials were concerned about previous U.S. involvement with the laboratory, and that they had knowledge of public statements made by the Wuhan laboratory’s director about U.S. funding being used for controversial research conducted there.
Following the officials’ conversations, public discussion of the source being a potential laboratory leak was actively suppressed by social media platforms, health officials, and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Email correspondence with NIH on 31 January 2020
Fauci received an email at 8.43 p.m. (p. 3229) on 31 January 2020, from an associate, Greg Folkers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the federal agency responsible for public health research. The email contained no text and held only a single, lengthy article that had been published in the magazine Science that evening.
The article, authored by Jon Cohen, was one of the earliest stories that described how scientists were working frantically on “viral genomes” in order to “understand the origin of 2019-nCoV.”
The article focused on the theory that the virus originated in a Wuhan seafood market, and the author took pains to discount the lab leak theory, noting that the viral sequences “knock down the idea the pathogen came from a virology institute in Wuhan.”
However, the author did note that “concerns about the institute predate this outbreak,” and also detailed how a scientist “in 2015 criticized an experiment in which modifications were made to a SARS-like virus circulating in Chinese bats to see whether it had the potential to cause disease in humans.”
The experiment cited in the Science article was more fully detailed in an article in the journal Nature about gain-of-function experiments on 9 November 2015—a process whereby viruses are deliberately made more virulent in order to predict emerging diseases—that were being conducted at the Wuhan lab using “chimeric viruses” in mice.
The article’s authors, including the director of the Wuhan lab, Shi Zhengli, noted that their research was initiated before the U.S. government introduced a moratorium on gain-of-function research. They added that their paper “has been reviewed by the funding agency,” and, crucially, that “continuation of these studies was requested, and this has been approved by the NIH.”
The article also noted that “research in this manuscript was supported by grants from the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Disease,” the organization Fauci heads, as well as NIAID’s parent organization, NIH.
After receiving the email from his NIH colleague (p. 3,229), Fauci forwarded the Science article to John Mascola of NIH at 9.47 pm (p. 3,229), noting, “Here is the Jon Cohen article.”
Two minutes later (p. 3,187), Fauci also forwarded the article to Jeremy Farrar, the head of a British nonprofit, and Kristian Andersen, a professor at Scripps Research, telling them, “This just came out today. You may have seen it. If not, it is of interest to the current discussion.”
Why Fauci chose to contact Farrar and Andersen, neither of whom worked for Fauci nor the NIH, isn’t clear but, in the following days, both became leading forces in efforts to dispel the lab leak theory. In March 2020, Andersen co-authored the highly influential paper “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” which remains widely cited as proof of natural origin. Andersen and his coauthors received funding from both NIH and Farrar’s organization.
Fauci also emailed the article to Robert Kadlec at the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), at 9.49 p.m. (p. 3,222), telling him, “Bob: This just came out today. Gives a balanced view. Best, Tony.”
At 10.32 p.m. (p. 3,187) that evening, Fauci received an email response from Andersen, who acknowledged receiving the article and noted an observation he made.
According to Andersen, “The unusual features of the virus make up a really small part of the genome (<0.1%) so one has to look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features (potentially) look engineered.”
Earlier in the day, however, Andersen had sent a tweet rebutting Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-Ark.) theory that the virus could have stemmed from the Wuhan lab, saying: “The analyses are completely flawed and wrong. They can safely be ignored.”
Fauci's email to NIAID on 1 February 2020
The next morning—at 7.29 am (p. 3,221) on 1 February 2020—Fauci sent Hugh Auchincloss, NIAID’s principal deputy director, the 2015 Nature article that detailed the gain-of-function experiments and the funding by NIH. He included a strongly worded message, saying: “It is essential that we speak this AM. Keep your cell phone on.” Fauci directed Auchincloss to “read this paper as well as the e-mail that I will forward to you now.”
“You will have tasks today that must be done,” he wrote.
The Nature article was referenced indirectly in the recently published article by Cohen. Thirty-five seconds later (p. 3,215), Fauci followed up by sending Auchincloss the newly published Science article that had been forwarded to him the evening before.
In 2014, Fauci’s NIAID awarded a $3.7 million grant to the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance, headed by Peter Daszak. According to Francis Collins of NIH, some of the grant funds “went to Wuhan” as part of “a subcontract from EcoHealth.”
The Obama administration in 2014 had established a moratorium on gain-of-function research, because of its inherent riskiness. It’s likely that the 2015 research in the article forwarded to Auchincloss by Fauci would have been covered by the ban.
At 8:19 a.m. (p. 3,210), Fauci sent the Nature article to Lawrence Tabak at NIH, in an email marked as “IMPORTANT.” Fauci simply told Tabak, “Here it is.”
About two hours later, at 10.34 am (p. 3,197), Farrar sent out a group email, announcing a 2 p.m. conference call. His email noted that “information and discussion is shared in total confidence and not to be shared until agreement on next steps.”
Included in the email was a brief agenda that included the items “Introduction, focus and desired outcomes” and “Summary and next steps.” Including Farrar, there were a total of 13 people listed on the teleconference agenda.
Shortly after Farrar’s email on the conference call, Auchincloss responded to Fauci at 11.47 am (p. 3,206) under an email thread with the subject line of “Continued.” This email chain differed from the one that Fauci had initiated when he sent the two articles earlier that morning.
Auchincloss noted, “The paper you sent me says the experiments were performed before the gain of function pause but have since been reviewed and approved by NIH. Not sure what that means since Emily is sure that no Coronavirus work has gone through the P3 framework. She will try to determine if we have any distant ties to this work abroad.”
“P3 framework” refers to the HHS P3CO Framework (HHS Framework for Guiding Funding Decisions About Proposed Research Involving Enhanced Potential Pandemic Pathogens), which is used to guide HHS and NIH funding decisions. It appears that Auchincloss was disputing the contention from researchers at the Wuhan lab that the gain-of-function experiments had been approved.
Fauci responded to Auchincloss’s email very simply at 12.51 pm (p. 3,206), noting only, “OK. Stay tuned.”
At 1.13 pm (p. 3,197), Farrar sent another email relating to the pending 2 pm teleconference, saying: “Kristen and Eddie have shared this and will talk through it on the call. Thank you. Hope it will help frame the discussions.” Kristen appears to be Kristian Andersen, who is later referred to as KA.
Due to redactions, it isn’t known what Farrar was referring to as being “shared.”
At 1.34 pm (p. 3,197), Fauci forwarded Farrar’s email to Tabak, alerting him to the 2 pm teleconference, simply noting, “FYI.”
At 1.43 pm (p. 3,172), Marion Koopmans, who oversees a Dutch lab that was previously involved with gain-of-function experiments, sent an email to Farrar and CC’d Fauci and other members of the call. The body of Koopmans’s email is fully redacted.
At the exact same time that Koopmans sent that email (p. 3,187), Fauci responded to Andersen’s email, which had previously noted that “one has to look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features (potentially) look engineered.” Fauci simply wrote: “Thanks, Kristian. Talk soon on the call.“
The teleconference ostensibly began at 2.00 pm as scheduled. At 2.56 pm (p. 3,172), during the teleconference, Farrar sent an email to four of the 13 individuals believed to be on the call, including Fauci, asking: “Can I suggest we shut down the call and then redial in? Just for 5-10 mins?”
At 3.03 pm (p. 3,172), Fauci responded directly to Farrar’s request with a simple “yes.” At 3:07 p.m. (p. 3,167), Farrar appears to have rejoined the call, sending an email that read somewhat confusingly, “I have rejoined so a line is open if any help to rejoin.”
The teleconference ends sometime after this point and before the next email, which is sent at 3:50 p.m.
The 3.50 pm email (p. 3,167), sent by Collins, appears to be referencing WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and states: “Hi Jeremy, I can make myself available at any time 24/7 for the call with Tedros. Just let me know. Thanks for your leadership on this critical and sensitive issue. Francis.“
Shortly thereafter, Farrar sent an email at 3.59 pm (p. 3,133) to the entire group, thanking them for their participation. Farrar noted: “There is clearly much to understand understand [sic] in this. This call was very helpful to hear some of our current understanding and the many gaps in our knowledge.”
A large redacted section then followed. Farrar closed by saying: “I hope that is a reasonable approach, please send any thoughts or suggestions. Once again, thank you for making time over a weekend and for such an informed discussion on a complex issue. Thank you and best wishes Jeremy.”
There are several more short, cordial emails.
At 3.30 am (p. 3,130), Ron Fouchier sent an email to unknown recipients, thanking Farrar for the “useful teleconference” and included a section titled “Ron’s notes.” The section of notes spans more than two full pages and is completely redacted.
Farrar responded to Fouchier, saying “Thanks Ron,” followed by a redacted paragraph. Farrar’s message closed with “Thoughts on that very welcome.”
Farrar then sent an email at 4.48 am (p. 3,128) to Andrew Raumbaut and the other attendees of the teleconference group. Farrar noted that “this is a very complex issue.” This comment was followed by a long redacted section before Farrar closed with “I suggest we don’t get into a further scientific discussion here, but wait for that group to be established.”
NIH head Collins then sent an email to Farrar at 5.27 am (p. 3,128), stating that he was available “for a call to Tedros.”
“Let me know if I can help get through his thicket of protectors,” he wrote. The email was copied to Fauci and Tabak.
At 7.13 am (p. 3,126), Collins sent an email to Farrar and CC’d Fauci and Tabak, noting, “Really appreciate us thinking through the options …” This entry is followed by a one-line redaction.
At 11.28 am (p. 3,125), Farrar sent an email to Fauci and Collins, copied to Tabak. Farrar shared with the others: “Tedros and Bernhard have apparently gone into conclave … they need to decide today in my view. If they do prevaricate, I would appreciate a call with you later tonight or tomorrow to think how we might take forward.”
At the end of the email, Farrar added a reference to the online news site ZeroHedge, which had just published an article on the possibility that the coronavirus came out of a lab.
The day after Farrar’s message, ZeroHedge was banned from Twitter.
Although it isn’t known what WHO Director Tedros was told, or asked, on 3 February 2020, he issued his “Report of the Director General,” which included a call to “combat the spread of rumours & misinformation.” Tedros also followed up with a tweet.
During his speech, Tedros announced: “We have worked with Google to make sure people searching for information about coronavirus see WHO information at the top of their search results. Social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Tencent, and TikTok have also taken steps to limit the spread of misinformation.”
Top House GOP lawmakers are now demanding the unredacted communications from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and called on him to testify after thousands of his emails were released to the public this week.
House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), the top Republican on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, and House Oversight Committee Ranking Member James Comer issued a letter to top committee Democrats and said it is “now imperative that Dr. Fauci come before our Committees to provide information related to the origins of the novel coronavirus as well as the U.S. government’s role in funding research that may have contributed to the development of the novel coronavirus.”
“The American people have a right to know what our government knew about the origins of the pandemic and when it was known,” they wrote in their letter, saying that “unreacted versions of all of Dr. Fauci’s recently released emails” should be pursued.
The two Republicans argued House Democrats’ “continued inaction while facing mounting evidence of the CCP’s malicious conduct is concerning,” referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
The Epoch Times contacted the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci heads, for comment.
During interviews with CNN and MSNBC on Thursday, Fauci said that an email he received from the EcoHealth Alliance, which was provided a U.S. grant to conduct research at the Wuhan lab, has been misconstrued.
“That’s nonsense,” Fauci responded when asked about whether he had a cozy relationship with researchers at the Wuhan lab. “I don’t even see how they get that from that email.”
“I have always said, and will say today to you … that I still believe the most likely origin is from an animal species to a human, but I keep an absolutely open mind that if there may be other origins of that, there may be another reason, it could have been a lab leak,” Fauci continued. “I believe if you look historically, what happens in the animal-human interface, that in fact the more likelihood is that you’re dealing with a jump of species. But I keep an open mind all the time. And that’s the reason why I have been public that we should continue to look for the origin.”
Thousands of Fauci’s emails were released earlier this week via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, which suggested that his team scrambled in early 2020 to respond to public reporting about the virus leaking from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Those emails suggested that officials were concerned with prior U.S. involvement with the laboratory.
Both Fauci and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins have both denied funding “gain of function” research, or experiments aimed at increasing the transmissibility or virulence of a virus, at the lab in Wuhan. However, documents show about $600,000 of a grant given to the EcoHealth Alliance was channeled to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to research coronavirus in bats in 2014.
Meanwhile, House Judiciary Committee Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) said Thursday that they started an investigation into what they described as a lack of oversight into “gain of function” research.
“Because you chair the group within the HHS responsible for reviewing funding decisions for research involving deadly pathogens, we request your assistance in better understanding how U.S. taxpayer dollars could fund dangerous research at an unsafe Chinese laboratory,” the GOP House members wrote.
“In retrospect, the vaccine is saving the world,” asserted President Trump. “Then, I placed the greatest bet in history. We ordered billions of dollars’ worth of vaccines before we knew it even worked. Had that not been done, our wonderful vaccines would not have been administered until October of this year. No one would’ve had the shot that has now saved the world and millions of lives!”
President Trump then referred to Fauci’s seemingly changing stance on the importance of wearing masks. In his private emails, Fauci repeatedly told colleagues and friends that mask wearing would prove unnecessary at stopping the COVID-19 pandemic, as the virus was small enough to be transmitted through standard cloth or surgical masks. “Fauci was totally against masks when even I thought they would at least be helpful,” said President Trump. “He then changed his mind completely and became a radical masker!”
The 45th President then referred to the litany of questions about Fauci’s decision to fund controversial bat coronavirus “gain of function” research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Refs: https://nationalfile.com/breaking-president-trump-blasts-fauci-for-wuhan-gain-of-function-research-devastating-emails-in-new-statement/, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9649575/Trump-demands-answers-Dr-Fauci-Wuhan-lab-claims-saved-lives-ignoring-advice.html?ito=push-notification&ci=212825&si=29714469&ai=9649575
Reporter : Mark Tapscott / Publisher : The Epoch Times PREMIUM / Editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA / Image : Tal Atzmon / The Epoch Times
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed to The Epoch Times on June 3 that his efforts to get to the bottom of how SARS-CoV-2 (CCP virus, novel coronavirus, covi) spread from China to the United States met with sustained opposition within the U.S. government.
Asked about revelations in a June 3 Vanity Fair report that key officials deep within the State Department sought to keep the public from knowing that U.S. funds had supported gain-of-function research at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), Pompeo described a “contentious battle.”
That research, which focused on techniques for reconfiguring naturally occurring viruses to make them more virulent and transmissible to humans, was partially funded as far back as 2012 with U.S. tax dollars through the National Institutes of Health and a nonprofit foundation known as the EcoHealth Alliance.
The Vanity Fair analysis “found that conflicts of interest, stemming in part from large government grants supporting controversial virology research, hampered the U.S. investigation into COVID-19’s origin at every step.”
“In one State Department meeting, officials seeking to demand transparency from the Chinese government say they were explicitly told by colleagues not to explore the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s gain-of-function research, because it would bring unwelcome attention to U.S. government funding of it,” the article reads.
China has insisted since the virus first appeared in late 2019 that it had spread from bats to humans via an open-air meat market in Wuhan. Some government and public health officials, private sector scientists, and investigative journalists, however, have said since early in 2020 that there’s substantial evidence that the virus spread somehow from the WIV.
Then-President Donald Trump and Pompeo, as well as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), publicly noted the existence of such evidence in April 2020 and called on Chinese officials to allow independent investigators to access the WIV and its records. China refused to do so.
After the November 2020 election, Pompeo pushed within the State Department and the Trump administration for public release of as much evidence as possible.
He issued a 15 January statement that includes a significant disclosure, that WIV researchers appeared to have suffered virus symptoms months before the disease spread throughout China and to other countries, including the United States.
The statement also notes the gain-of-function research taking place at WIV and asks whether U.S. funding may have been diverted to secret Chinese military projects at the WIV.
But even getting that statement out was a struggle, Pompeo told The Epoch Times on June 3.
“I became aware at the end of 2020 that we now had an increased level of confidence in the datapoints that supported what we put out in the middle of January. The clock was clearly running, and I was fighting very hard inside the State Department and even more broadly,” he said.
A major roadblock was the fact that significant portions of the evidence were held by intelligence agencies that opposed their public release.
“There were places outside of the State Department that owned the dataset inside the intelligence community, so we were banging away to get them to give us as much space to write as much as we possibly could,” Pompeo said.
“We were drafting language that protected classified things that needed to be protected but we wanted to make sure that we got this information out in the public space.”
The former secretary of state said he viewed it as important at the time, and continues today to say that the American people should know all the facts, and the Chinese government should be held accountable if the virus did escape from the WIV.
“There were two reasons for that. One, it was a matter of transparency and, two, we wanted the Chinese Communist Party to have to explain what we knew as well, so we had a very high degree of certainty around what we did,” Pompeo said. “The statement was very carefully crafted, but it is unambiguous about what it said.”
A former senior State Department official with direct knowledge of these matters, who spoke on background, told The Epoch Times that Pompeo made clear to everybody involved in the State Department’s investigation of the source of the virus that they were to pursue facts wherever they led.
When told of internal opposition to the effort, the former senior official said that Pompeo responded with a salty aphorism reflective of his Army career.
“He said, ‘Screw them and tell them the secretary of state said do it.’ And he also said something that’s very, very important. He said, ‘I don’t care what conclusion you guys dig out. It may be something we like to hear, politically, or something we don’t like to hear, but I want the truth.’ That was exactly the attitude throughout the whole investigation this group was doing.”
News (20)
Former CDC Director received death threats from scientists for supporting Wuhan lab leak theory
Reporter : Jack Phillips / Publisher : The Epoch Times PREMIUM / Editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
Image : Alex Edelman/Pool via Reuters
Former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield says he received death threats from fellow scientists after saying he suspected that SARS-CoV-2 (CCP virus) originated in a Wuhan laboratory.
Redfield told Vanity Fair in an interview published on 3 June 2021 that he received a significant amount of backlash after he told CNN earlier this year that he’s a proponent of the theory the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, contradicting the official narrative espoused by the CCP.
Saying he was “threatened and ostracized because I proposed another hypothesis,” Redfield told the magazine that he “expected it from politicians. I didn’t expect it from science.”
Redfield noted that some death threats came from individuals who thought he was being racially insensitive, but other threats came from prominent scientists, whom he didn’t name.
In March, Redfield said that it is “not unusual for respiratory pathogens that are being worked on in a laboratory to infect a laboratory worker,” noting that he’s “spent [his] life” studying viruses.
“Normally, when a pathogen goes from a zoonot to human,” he added, “it takes a while for it to figure out how to become more and more efficient in human-to-human transmission.”
Because of that, Redfield said the CCP virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, most likely “was from a laboratory” in Wuhan, China, that had “escaped.” Also in the interview, Redfield said he suspected the viral pandemic started as a localized outbreak in Wuhan earlier than many have suspected—in September or October of 2019—instead of in December 2019 or January 2020.
“I’m of the point of view that I still think the most likely etiology of this pathology in Wuhan was from a laboratory—you know, escaped,” Redfield further said in the CNN interview. “Other people don’t believe that. That’s fine. Science will eventually figure it out.”
CCP officials claimed the virus first emerged in December 2019, at a wet market in Wuhan several miles from the Wuhan lab. However, the Chinese regime has provided scant details about how the virus was transmitted and hasn’t been able to pinpoint the animal that spread the virus to humans.
At the same time, the CCP has received criticism from the international community, including human rights organizations, for its attempts to cover up the origin of the virus and for silencing doctors, whistleblowers, and others.
The World Health Organization has previously speculated that the virus was transmitted from a bat through an intermediary animal.
President Joe Biden last month said that a number of officials within the U.S. intelligence community, the group of 17 agencies led by the Office of Director of National Intelligence, suspects that the virus came from the Wuhan lab and announced they would investigate the matter.
News (21)
Biden orders ban on 59 Chinese defense and tech firms
Reporter : Emel Akan / Publisher : The Epoch Times PREMIUM
The order also moves the authority of selecting targeted companies to the Treasury Department from the Defense Department.
Biden’s order expands the scope of the national emergency declared by then-President Donald Trump last year and bans more companies involved in “the development or use of Chinese surveillance technology to facilitate repression or serious human rights abuse.”
The order “prohibits United States persons from engaging in the purchase or sale of any publicly traded securities” of 59 entities listed in the annex of the executive order.
Blacklisted companies include telecoms equipment maker Huawei, video surveillance manufacturer Hikvision, aerospace firm Aviation Industry Corp. of China, and state-run mobile operators China Mobile and China Telecom.
The Treasury Department will continue to update the list of these Chinese entities. The selection will be determined by the Treasury secretary in consultation with the secretary of state and, if deemed appropriate, the Defense secretary, according to a White House factsheet.
The ban list does not mention subsidiaries of these companies as the list is “intentionally targeted and scoped,” according to the factsheet.
The Trump administration targeted 44 Chinese military companies and intended to include publicly traded subsidiaries that were “50 percent or more owned” or “determined to be controlled” by those companies.
The new order, however, shrinks the scope of the ban by excluding subsidiaries.
The investment prohibitions will take effect on Aug. 2, but investors are permitted to make trades to divest their holding until June 3, 2022.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) raised concerns about Biden’s move to shift the authority to the Treasury Department.
“We know for a fact that Wall Street is helping to finance the Chinese Communist Party’s effort to weaken and ultimately replace American leadership,” Rubio said in a statement.
“While the administration updated the Trump-era policy in important ways, I am very concerned that President Biden’s Treasury Department is too closely aligned with Wall Street to take the actions necessary to prevent American savings from being used to fund the Chinese Communist Party.”
In his final weeks in office, Trump took swift action to ban investments in Chinese military companies, in an effort to curb Beijing’s access to lucrative U.S. capital markets.
Trump’s order aimed to curb U.S. pension and retirement fund investments in companies that support the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Many of these companies are publicly traded on stock exchanges around the world and are tracked by major indexes such as MSCI and FTSE.
The American Securities Association (ASA), which represents regional Main Street financial services companies, welcomed the new executive order.
“ASA strongly supports today’s action by the Biden Administration to prioritize America’s economic and national security interests by continuing the previous Administration’s crackdown on Communist China’s infiltration of the U.S. capital markets,” ASA CEO Chris Iacovella said in a statement.
“For far too long, the CCP has taken advantage of regulatory loopholes to fund its military rise, a cyber army that attacks us, ‘re-education camps’ used to perpetrate crimes against humanity on its own citizens, the use of slave labor in violation of international law, and its new position as the world’s leading polluter.”
UK strips Portugal off Green list due to covid resurgence, citing potentially 'vaccine-defeating' Nepal variant of Covi72
Reporters : James Tapsfield and Sam Blanchard / Source : Daily Mail / Re-editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
Holidaymakers suffered a hammer blow today as Portugal was removed from the UK's green list, with Grant Shapps citing fears over the spread of the new Nepal variant.
In a brutal overhaul, the only major tourist destination in the lowest bracket is being axed from 4am Tuesday - with sources suggesting the new strain identified in the country was a significant factor in the decision.
No countries are being added to the 'green list', dashing hopes that places such as Malta, Jamaica and Grenada could be added to the roster thanks to easing Covid rates.
And more countries are being put on the 'red list' that means returning travellers must go into quarantine hotels. They are Egypt, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Bahrain, Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago and Afghanistan.
Transport Secretary Mr Shapps said there had been a rise in test positivity in Portugal, and also pointed to the danger that the coronavirus variant linked to Nepal could pose a fresh threat to the escape from lockdown.
'I want to be straight with people, it's actually a difficult decision to make, but in the end we've seen two things really which caused concern,' he said.
'One is the positivity rate has nearly doubled since the last review in Portugal and the other is there's a sort of Nepal mutation of the so-called Indian variant which has been detected and we just don't know the potential for that to be a vaccine-defeating mutation, and simply don't want to take the risk as we come up to June 21 and the review of the fourth stage of the unlock.'
At least 20 cases of the strain, which combines mutations from the Indian and South African versions, have been spotted in the UK. And a case has been identified in Portugal - which does far less genomic screening than Britain.
The decision sparked fury from the travel industry, while Portuguese government branded it 'illogical' and the MP for the Algarve Cristóvão Norte said it was 'unfair' and 'overly cautious'.
Meanwhile, Labour has renewed demands for the 'amber list' to be scrapped to prevent mutant strains from being imported.
In another setback for travellers, the EU has again delayed a decision on whether the UK will be added to its 'white list' of safe countries from which leisure travel is welcome.
The Government said the decision to move Portugal to the amber list followed an 'almost doubling' in the country's coronavirus test positivity rate and the discovery of 68 cases of the Indian variant including some with a mutation previously seen in Nepal.
Public Health England is investigating both the Indian variant and the mutation 'to better understand whether it could be more transmissible and less effectively tackled by vaccines'.
Mr Shapps said 'decisive action' will help 'make sure that we can do a domestic unlock'.
'We would expect in the ordinary course of events for there to be now a three-week period, obviously subject to if something dramatic comes up we would of course need to make changes elsewhere and we will have to reserve the right to do that to protect the population at home.
'Look, 67 million people have been through a lot this last year and a half, but a lot of people have come forward for their jabs in incredible numbers.
'No one wants the government to fail to take decisive action to protect that as we look towards this fourth unlock, and we want to give ourselves the best possible chance when we get to that unlock and not have factors from outside – for example potentially vaccine defeating mutation – preventing us from being able to give ourselves the best chance of unlocking domestically.'
Mr Shapps said the UK had 'done wonders with our vaccination programme and the rest of the world will catch up'.
'Europe is probably 10 weeks behind but they will catch up and I don't know exactly what that will mean in terms of the summer but the decisive action today is designed to protect the future, to make sure that we can do a domestic unlock or give ourselves the best possible chance of doing so and that will also help us to unlock international travel given time,' he added.
'So we're not in the same place as last year, we've got the vaccination programme, we do need to check though that the vaccine can work against all the kinds of mutations that we're seeing and so we're having to take a safety first attitude when it comes to those mutations becoming apparent.'
With Portugal facing a shift to the amber list after ministers meet today, people returning from the country will have to self-isolate for 10 days as well as paying for coronavirus tests.
The change will probably take effect from June 7 - although it could be earlier.
It will be a huge kick in the teeth to Britons who have already booked a holiday in hot spots such as the Algarve, believing they will be able to return quarantine free.
And it will also be another damaging blow to the already struggling travel industry, which had hoped for more countries to be added to the green list this month.
News (23)
Portugal reports its highest daily number of cases since March
Yesterday Portugal saw its highest daily number of cases since March. And the country currently has a case rate of around 37 infections per 100,000 people - higher than the UK's rate of 34.5.
The final decisions were based on an assessment from the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC).
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the priority was 'keeping the country safe'.
'We have got to follow the data and of course, I understand why people want to travel but we've got to make sure we keep this country safe, especially because the vaccine programme is going so well,' he told reporters at a G7 gathering in Oxford this morning.
'We have seen hospitalisations and deaths come right down and we have to got to protect the progress we have made here at home, whilst allowing for travel where it is safe.
'You have got to follow the data.'
Mr Johnson hinted at a hard line when he was asked about expanding the green list yesterday, and said: 'We're going to try to allow people to travel, as I know that many people want to, but we've got to be cautious and we've got to continue to put countries on the red list, on the amber list, when that is necessary.
'I want you to know we will have no hesitation in moving countries from the green list to the amber list to the red list, if we have to do so.
'The priority is to continue the vaccination rollout, to protect the people of this country.'
In the past, holiday-makers have normally been given days - and sometimes up to a week - to return to the UK from countries where travel restrictions have been changed.
News (24)
More countries will be added to the UK's Green List and Red List by July 2021
The government has ignored pressure for other countries such as Malta to be added to the green list.
The Mediterranean island, a popular destination for British tourists, is currently on the amber list, but has high vaccination levels and low infections.
The Cayman Islands, Grenada, British Virgin Islands, Finland and some Caribbean islands were also among those being floated for the green list.
Cyprus' deputy tourism minister yesterday said the country 'absolutely deserves' to be in the loosest category.
After today, the green list – which currently contains 12 countries – will not be reviewed until the week running up to June 28.
That means it will be July before there is another chance for more destinations to make it on to the list.
Travel industry experts have suggested that case levels are low enough to move countries down.
However, Spain and Greece, which are two of the most popular tourist destinations of British holiday-makers, look doomed to remain on the amber list for another month at least.
Meanwhile, Bahrain, Costa Rica and Vietnam are among the countries that could be moved up to the red list.
While amber arrivals are required to self-isolate for 10 days, and complete two PCR tests, arrivals from red list countries must stay in a quarantine hotel once landing in the UK - at the cost of £1,750 per person.
Portuguese MP Mr Norte told LBC Radio it was an 'unfair decision' that has 'no basis'.
'I respect it but I think they have an overly cautious approach. Portugal has taken all the measures and the results show it,' he said.
Andrew Flintham, manging director for TUI UK, said: 'This latest announcement is another step back for our industry.
'After promises that the Global Travel Taskforce would result in a clear framework, removing the damaging flip-flopping we all endured last summer, the Government decision to move Portugal straight from green to amber will do untold damage to customer confidence.
'We were reassured that a green watch list would be created and a week's notice would be given so travellers wouldn't have to rush back home. They have failed on this promise.
'Unlike other European countries and despite multiple requests, the Government has refused to be transparent about the data requirements for green, amber and red destinations.
'We must see the methodology so we can help our customers and plan our operations accordingly. There are destinations around the world with little or no Covid-19 cases and good vaccination rates, so we need to understand why these remain on the amber list.'
EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said: 'This shock decision to add Portugal to the amber list is a huge blow to those who are currently in Portugal and those who have booked to be reunited with loved ones, or take a well-deserved break this summer.
'With Portuguese rates similar to those in the UK it simply isn't justified by the science.
'And to add no more countries to the green list when most of Europe's infection rates are on a downward trend and many places with low infection rates below that of the UK, such as the Balearics with a current rate of 33 in 100,000 and Malta, with just 12 in 100,000, this makes no sense.
'Especially when domestic travel is allowed within the UK, despite a number of cities having infection rates 20 times greater than much of Europe.'
Paul Charles, chief executive of The PC Agency, suggested the government was motivated by 'political' considerations rather than public health.
On the decision not to add any more countries to the green travel list he said: 'I think it's a terrible decision that threatens jobs and recovery in the travel sector.
'It shows little awareness of the safe destinations globally and is at odds with how citizens from other countries such as America are travelling.
'Those British citizens who have been fully jabbed should be given more flexibility to travel to a wider range of green destinations.
'They are basically putting at risk tens of thousands of jobs across aviation and the travel sector, and not showing any signs of helping the sector to recover.
'They seem to want to continue to create an atmosphere of fear among travellers, which is totally at odds with other countries.
'There are several countries which meet the criteria to be on the green list so this is clearly a politically charged decision rather than one based on data.'
Experts say the coronavirus variant being linked to Nepal could have been spread by climbers travelling home from Mount Everest.
As many as 13 passengers flying from Nepal to Japan were infected with the new mutant strain that combines mutations from Covi72 (for B.1.167.2) and Covi51 (for B.1.351).
At least 20 cases have been spotted in the UK, with the strain first spotted on April 24 according to surveillance data. Cases were also detected in the US, India and Portugal.
Its mutations mean scientists fear it could be more infectious, and more resistant to vaccines.
Mr Hancock said yesterday Britain is preparing to buy millions of tweaked doses of the AstraZeneca jab that target Covi51.
SAGE scientists think it makes jabs at least 30 per cent less effective against infections, but its impact on severe disease is not known.
Ministers sparked surge testing in postcode areas where the strain was detected, to root out every last case.
Only one case of the variant has been recorded in Nepal so far, but the country carries out very little surveillance for mutant strains.
The UK has placed Nepal and India on its 'red' list, and the US is on its 'amber' list.
Alternative/ New Label WHO Label Virology (as known in public) First detected in
Covi17 Alpha SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 or B.1.1.7 Kent, UK
Covi51 Beta B.1.351 South Africa
Covip1 Gamma P.1 Brazil
Covi72 Delta B.1.617.2 India
Covi79 Epsilon B.1.427/B.1.429 US
Covip2 Zeta P.2 Brazil
Covi25 Eta B.1.525 Nigeria
Covip3 Theta P.3 Philippines
Covi26 Iota B.1.526 US
Covi71 Kappa B.1.617.1 India
Covi29 - - Bac Giang, Vietnam
Covi60 - B.1.160 France
Covi70 - B.1.470 Indonesia
Covi172 - - Kobe, Japan
WIV04 SARS-CoV-2 SARS-CoV-2 WIV04 Wuhan, China
Covi4G - D614G Wuhan, China
Covi1B - A701B Sabah, Malaysia
Covi05 - Cluster 5 Denmark
Covi41 - B.1.324.1 with E484K Antigua
Covi73 - B.1.617.3 India
Covi72K4 Delta+K417N B.1.617.2+K417N Nepal
News (25)
Nepal identified new strain of Covi72 from Mount Everest
The Nepal strain is a mutated version of the Indian variant currently dominant in the UK — B.1.617.2 — but also carries the K417N mutation spotted on the South African variant — B.1.351 — which scientists say could make jabs less effective.
The new mutant strain has been named Delta+K417N. (StayGate addresses the new strain as Covi72K4)
Nepal faced its second wave of the pandemic in May, driven by imports of the Indian variant after it kept its borders open.
There have been several covid outbreaks in camps at Mount Everest, with more than 100 people reported infected at a base camp in May.
Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at Reading University, told MailOnline it was 'entirely possible' the mutant strain was being spread by travellers.
'Anywhere travellers go is a likely source of transmission across the world,' he said. 'It seems to me that the Himalayan region is for Nepal is a tourism hotspot.'
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British Airways planned to add summer hotspots before the new variant was exposed
Before the news emerged Robert Boyle, former director of strategy at British Airways' parent company IAG, said a number of summer hotspots could be added to the green tier if islands were considered separately.
He wrote in a blog post: 'It still seems very likely that whilst Spain and Greece will not make it onto the green list, many of their islands will, due to lower case rates and higher vaccinations than on the mainland.'
Mr Boyle added, 'Malta, Finland and Slovakia are fairly safe bets, based on high testing rates and low reported cases.'
Portugal is the only viable major tourist destination currently on the green list, but there have been reports it could be downgraded to amber.
The Government has urged people to avoid non-essential travel to amber and red countries.
Travellers returning from amber list locations – which include popular hotspots such as Spain, France, Italy and Greece – must quarantine at home for 10 days and take two post-arrival tests.
Several additions to the red list are expected today.
People returning to the UK from a red country are required to spend 11 nights in a quarantine hotel, at a cost of £1,750 for solo travellers.
Assessments of travel lists are based on a range of factors, including the proportion of a population that has been vaccinated, rates of infection, emerging new variants, and access to reliable scientific data and genomic sequencing.
Home Office minister Victoria Atkins said the public should 'exercise their common sense' about travelling abroad.
She told Times Radio: 'We all want to get back to normality, pre-pandemic normality.
'But I think (we) all understand we've got to take careful steps to do that.'
Yesterday Cyprus' deputy tourism minister said the country 'absolutely deserved' be put on the UK's travel green list.
Savvas Perdios told the Telegraph: 'Cyprus absolutely deserves to be green-listed.
'We have made a lot of progress, especially over the last month.'
The country's current Covid infection rate sits at 36.95 per 100,000 people - on par with green-listed Portugal (35.58) and the UK (34.5).
Yesterday, the country, which went into a short two-week firebreaker lockdown in May, reported just 58 new daily cases.
And Mr Perdios said around half of the country's 875,000 population has been vaccinated so far.
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Covi72K4 spread to Europe
It comes as the Mail today revealed how foreign holidays are under threat because ministers are worried about a new covi variant.
Scientists have alerted ministers to the mutant strain – thought to have originated in Nepal – which has apparently spread to Europe. They fear the strain is resistant to vaccines.
But a member of the Government's SAGE committee of experts said officials should not be overly concerned. He added: 'There are thousands of variants. This is a virus that is changing all the time.'
And Tory peer Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, chairman of the Airport Operators' Association, said: 'How many more variants have we got to be worried about? What matters is data and the success of our vaccination programme.'
The developments are a huge blow for the travel industry, which has been brought to its knees by the pandemic.
Industry leaders and MPs have warned that more than a million jobs are at risk if most of the summer season is lost, with billions more wiped from the UK economy.
Last night, even government advisers said the UK could not keep panicking every time a new variant emerges. Professor Sir John Bell said ministers should avoid 'scampering down a rabbit hole' when new strains are detected, and instead focus on hospitalisations, serious disease and deaths.
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The UK will review Green and Amber Lists on 14 June 2021
Last night, MPs and industry expressed alarm at the prospect of foreign summer holidays slipping away.
Tory MP Henry Smith, chairman of the all-party Future of Aviation group of MPs, and whose constituency includes Gatwick, said: 'After a devastating year for our aviation, travel and tourism industries, this will come as a hammer blow to an industry that is close to breaking point.
'Far from benefiting from a vaccine dividend, this reinforces that our overly cautious approach to international travel is a restart in name only.
'We must ensure that we avoid a summer shutdown that will cause irreversible damage to businesses and communities who rely on international travel.'
Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the 'amber list has to be scrapped because of the huge confusion it is creating and the number of travellers who are now coming through our airports'.
'The government has made a complete hash of this frankly…
'What we need to do is yes have that small green list, we totally understand that people do want that hope of going on holiday abroad, but put the amber list countries into the red list and let's have a comprehensive hotel quarantining system because keeping our variants is absolutely critical.'
He added: 'We have to get our Covid border protections right.'
Mr Thomas-Symonds said that the green list should be built up 'slowly and safely' while tough restrictions are in place on other countries.
'I'm not saying that the green list needs to be closed. In fact the way to build a safe green list of countries is to have the other countries with very strict border controls against Covid,' he added.
Brussels recommends that member states lift travel restrictions on people coming from countries on its 'white list' - although member states are not obliged to follow the guidance and many do not.
Currently the list includes Israel, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Australia.
However, there are reports that Japan is about to be added, even though much of the country has been in lockdown.
The UK's status is now expected to be reviewed again on 14 June.
A coronavirus variant that is being linked to Nepal could have been spread by climbers travelling home from Mount Everest, experts say.
As many as 13 passengers flying from Nepal to Japan were infected with the new mutant strain that combines mutations from the Indian and South African variants.
At least 20 cases have been spotted in the UK, MailOnline revealed today, with the strain first spotted on April 24 according to surveillance data. Cases were also detected in the US, India and Portugal.
Its mutations mean scientists fear it could be more infectious, and more resistant to vaccines.
Matt Hancock said yesterday Britain is preparing to buy millions of tweaked doses of the AstraZeneca jab that target the South African variant.
SAGE scientists think it makes jabs at least 30 per cent less effective against infections, but its impact on severe disease is not known.
Ministers sparked surge testing in postcode areas where the strain was detected, to root out every last case.
At least one case has been spotted in Portugal, which sources say will move to the 'amber' list today sparking holiday misery across the country.
Only one case of the variant has been recorded in Nepal so far, but the country carries out very little surveillance for mutant strains. The UK has placed Nepal and India on its 'red' list, and the US is on its 'amber' list.
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Myanmar locks down Kalaymyo
Source : The Irrawaddy
The military regime imposed a stay-at-home order on another township in Sagaing Region on Wednesday, as COVID-19 cases continue to spike in northwest Myanmar.
Residents of Kalaymyo, also known as Kalay and Kale, were ordered to stay in their homes a day after Myanmar reported the country’s largest daily rise in COVID-19 cases since February with 122 new cases. 13 of those were recorded in Kalay Township.
Under the stay-at home order, everyone except government staff and employees of companies and factories has to stay inside, said the junta-controlled Ministry of Health and Sports (MOHS). Residents must ask for official permission if they have to leave their homes on urgent matters or if more than one person has to leave the home.
Residents are also required to wear face masks when outside. The MOHS warned that people who fail to comply with the order will face prosecution.
Last Friday, Tamu Township in Sagaing Region and Tonzang Township in Chin State were also placed under stay-at-home orders after reporting a large number of COVID-19 infections.
MOHS officials said that they have been facing a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases in Sagaing Region and Tonzang and Falam townships in Chin State, which borders India. Tonzang Township reported 52 of the 122 coronavirus cases recorded on Tuesday.
On Thursday, a 54-year-old woman and a 51-year-old man died of COVID-19 while they were being treated at a hospital in the town of Cikha in Tonzang Township.
A 74-year-old and a 38-year-old pregnant woman who were being treated at the same hospital have also died of COVID-19 in the last five days.
On Thursday, a 54-year-old woman and a 51-year-old man died of COVID-19 while they were being treated at a hospital in the town of Cikha in Tonzang Township.
A 74-year-old and a 38-year-old pregnant woman who were being treated at the same hospital have also died of COVID-19 in the last five days.
Dr. Daw Khin Khin Gyi, the director of the MOHS’s Emerging Infectious Disease Epidemiology Unit, told the Irrawaddy on Wednesday that they are carrying out tests to determine which form of COVID-19 is spreading in Sagaing Region and Chin State.
She added that they suspect that the new coronavirus variant found in India has now spread across the border into Myanmar.
72 people across Myanmar tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, although this is almost certainly an underestimate of the true infection rate as only around 1,600 COVID-19 tests were performed nationwide.
As of Wednesday, Myanmar had reported a total of 143,823 COVID-19 cases, including 3,218 fatalities and 132,388 people who have recovered.
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Image : Linda Jiang / The Epoch Times
The California State Assembly recently passed a bill mandating a semester of ethnic studies as a graduation requirement for all high school students. Many California residents, and a large number of Chinese Americans, organized protest rallies to boycott the state legislature’s proposal, fearing implementation of communist Cultural Revolution-style theories in schools. Some parents are advocating against teaching Critical Race Theory to their children.
At the protest rallies against the bill, signs read, “Stop Hatred Education” and “Against the California Communist Cultural Revolution.”
However, the proposal officially passed at the end of May under the leadership of Jose Medina, a Democrat representative of California’s 61st District and a chair of the Higher Education Committee.
The legislation is titled Assembly Bill 101, or AB101. It makes California’s new Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum a requirement for graduation for all high school students. A similar bill passed last summer under the California State University Board of Trustees, requiring all students to take ethnic studies or a social justice course to graduate.
These courses teach students the theory that systemic racism exists in the United States. All white people are blessed with privileges and act as oppressors, while people of color are victims. Collectivism is good and capitalism is responsible for racist institutions.
My issue with Critical Race Theory is how it obsesses over educating students to classify themselves, and tells them that this classification predominantly determines their role in life.
The NY Post reported on similar happenings in the New York education system.
The article details literature created by an associate professor of African American studies at Northwestern University in Illinois. The curriculum allows students to conduct self-tests on their “white privilege.” The principal of a New York City public school asked white students and parents to take the handout and reflect on themselves.
It divides white people into eight white identities, and even comes with a diagram that ranks the identities on a color scale of red to green. Red is a bad white person and green is a good white person.
“White Supremacists” are bright red on the chart and considered the worst group on the list for maintaining a society which “preserves, names, and values white superiority.”
The second worst identity is “White Voyeurism” defined as someone who “wouldn’t challenge a white supremacist, desires non-whiteness because it’s interesting” and appropriates black culture “without the burden of blackness.”
The next level is “White Privilege.” These whites may criticize white supremacy but still support white rule.
Then there are “White Benefit” people who only privately feel badly for people of color and do not speak in public about minority issues.
Fifth are “White Confessionals” who seek recognition from people of color and expose whiteness in small measure.
Next, “White Critical” is the label for people invested in exposing the “white regime.”
The seventh category is “White Traitor” people who actively “subvert white authority and tell the truth at whatever cost.”
Last, but not least, are “White Abolitionists.” This is ranked as the best white identity for those aiming to dismantle whiteness and refusing to allow whiteness to reassert itself.
In addition to ethnic studies, California also has courses on social issues at large. They ask students to understand power structure, forms of oppression, patriarchy, anti-indigenousness, Islamophobia, transphobia, and LGBTQ issues.
Identity Politics in Communist China
These practices mirror communist ideology. One goal of communism is to overthrow the existing system by using all possible methods to divide society based on social identities, privilege classifications, and to establish a culture of hatred to inevitably disintegrate society.
Both Leninism and Maoism used similar methods. The biggest difference is they used violent revolutionary methods to directly slaughter various counter-revolutionaries. However, during their country’s period of revolution and in order to maintain power, they sought to divide society as much as possible.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seized power in mainland China in 1949. Their practices mirror leftist America’s preoccupation with the stark classification of identities and privilege. Everyone in mainland China had to report their origin, ancestors, and whether they were rich or poor during the preceding 49 years.
At that time, the division was simpler with only a few categories, such as workers, capitalists, landlords, rich peasants, poor peasants, middle peasants, urban craftsmen, and businessmen. Later on, this identity classification became more and more detailed, and of course, there were more and more types, until finally there was a family origins birth code.
The father of a friend of mine has a story about identity during the height of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. He and a friend were cleaning up one day when the friend accidentally broke Mao Zedong’s plaster statue on the ground. In fear, he trembled with fright and almost passed out. My friend’s father quickly comforted him and said, don’t be afraid, if someone asks, say that I accidentally toppled it over, not you.
The only difference between the two friends is their origin and identity. My friend’s father was born to a poor peasant, and his friend was born to a landlord. In communist China, the same mistake made by a landlord made him a counter-revolutionary while a poor peasant remains innocent.
When I told this story to people after the Cultural Revolution, most found it absurd and laughed at the silliness. I did not ever expect it to be so relevant in the United States almost 50 years later.
Skeptical Chinese Americans
Many of the protestors of the California ethnic studies bill are Chinese. For Chinese from mainland China or Hong Kong or Taiwan, the stench of these identity theories is picked up immediately because it is all too familiar.
At the California rally, parent Kelson Sun, spoke to the Chinese-language edition of the Epoch Times. He believes that dividing people by skin color and advocating racism is actually paving the way for the realization of racial discrimination. Therefore, teaching the content of racism courses in schools is implementing a kind of systematic hate education. He said the point is that this kind of education is mainly to incite hatred.
He said, “Whether it is a racial division or other divisions, it is inciting hatred. In human history, whether it is in mainland China, Burma, or In Cambodia, we can clearly see the homicide caused by hatred education. I believe that anyone who maintains the foundation of the United States should not pass such a proposal.”
Sun further added, “if there are Americans who still don’t know [the evil consequences], I suggest you go to the Khmer Rouge Memorial and see the piles of bones. Just think about why those people shot their compatriots? It’s because there is hatred in their hearts; hatred. Where did it come from? Isn’t it just indoctrinated? If you don’t agree with this kind of hatred, you won’t be able to graduate or find a job. We don’t want our children to fall into this situation.”
Another parent, Mr. Li, told the Chinese-language edition Epoch Times that the theory splits the United States into two classes: “oppressed” and “oppressors.” According to this theory, white people are classified as the “oppressor” class, and other people of color are classified as the “oppressed” class. ” Asians have become the “quasi-oppressive” class of “White-adjacent” class. “This is purely a hate attack against Asians.”
Mr. Li further added, “We came to the United States to pursue freedom and human rights, and to pursue a better life. We hope that the next generation will grow up with all kinds of freedom, instead of being brainwashed and imaged as the Red Guards of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, full of hatred for our society.”
I agree with the views of these Chinese parents.
The premise of Critical Race Theory is a truth that does not need to be proved: that the United States is a racist and oppressive country.
The United States does have racial issues, just like all other countries. Every race in this world, whether it is white or black or yellow; and every country of whites, Asians, or blacks has had cultural or racial discrimination. You cannot just take these problems and slap a label on them as systemic or institutional rather than due to flaws of humanity.
What we need to be most vigilant about is that some people are using economic, racial, gender, and class identity to divide American society and create hatred. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and today’s well-intentioned divisions of society are no different.
Alexander Liao is a columnist and journalist in research on international affairs in the United States, China, and Southeast Asia. He has published a large number of reports, commentaries, and video programs in newspapers and Chinese financial magazines in the United States and Hong Kong.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the media-at-large. The article first appeared in The Epoch Times.
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