DNI Director Gabbard Investigates 120 US-Funded Biolabs For Gain-Of-Function Research

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is investigating over 120 biological laboratories outside of the country that were funded by US tax dollars as part of President Trump’s executive order to end dangerous gain-of-function research. Gabbard provided a statement to the New York Post on Monday saying her team will “identify where these labs are, what pathogens they contain and what ‘research’ is being conducted to end dangerous gain-of-function research that threatens the health and wellbeing of the American people and the world.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens in biolabs can have.” Gabbard continued. “Yet despite these obvious dangers, politicians, so-called health professionals, like Dr. Fauci, and entities within the Biden administration’s national security team lied to the American people about the existence of these US-funded and supported biolabs and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth.”

This news comes just after the 5-year statute of limitations passed for the Department of Justice to bring charges against Dr. Anthony Fauci for lying to Congress. On May 11, 2021, Dr. Fauci told Senator Rand Paul that “the NIH has not ever, and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.” Senator Paul has been pressuring the DOJ to press charges against Dr. Fauci for this interaction for years.

“The DOJ may never act, but the American people know the truth: Fauci misled and defrauded this country,” Senator Paul said on Monday. “I won’t stop uncovering the truth around the great COVID cover-up. That’s why I will have a whistleblower testify before my committee this Wednesday.”

Fauci advisor David Morens was indicted two weeks ago for conspiracy, which included emails where he mentioned “Tony,” which is a reference to Dr. Fauci. In one email, Morens said “[T]here is no worry about FOIAs. I can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail [sic], or hand it to him at work or at his house. He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.”

Dr. Fauci may still face other charges as Director Gabbard and others in the administration investigate COVID-era coverups. President Joe Biden issued a blanket pardon to Fauci on his last day in office that dates back to 2014. The pardon was backdated more than a decade from when the pardon was signed via autopen by President Biden. 2014 was the year President Obama announced a moratorium on gain-of-function research and also the same year EcoHealth Alliance and its CEO Peter Daszak were approved for NIH funds to study bat coronaviruses in Wuhan.

Meanwhile, the gain-of-function executive order has not been fulfilled according to the timeline. The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was guided to revise or replace the 2024 policy pursuant to the executive order within 120 days. That deadline passed in September and the guidelines still haven’t been reached. While it is the OSTP that is tasked with updating the guidelines, they are asked to do so in coordination with the national security and health agencies.

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya has received criticism for elevating Jeffrey Taubenberger to the acting director of the NIAID, which is the same office that was previously held by Dr. Fauci. Taubenberger co-authored a paper with Morens, the indicted Fauci advisor, with an intent to boost the claim that COVID-19 had natural origins. Morens suggested to Daszak that he could write this paper in exchange for a kickback.

Taubenberger is famous for being a researcher that constituted the 1918 Spanish Flu from a dead body and has been a historical advocate of gain-of-function research. Despite his support of this research and his connection to Fauci, Morens, and others, Director Bhattacharya has continually supported Taubenberger as the NIAID director.

In January, reporter Emily Kopp said she submitted a FOIA request for NIH communications in June only to have it be held up on Bhattacharya’s desk since September. Bhattacharya, in October, called out Kopp’s reporting as “bad” and insisted his forgiveness of Francis Collins and support of Taubenberger is irrelevant to his commitment to end dangerous GoF research at the NIH.

While Director Gabbard investigates US-funded laboratories abroad for GoF research, there continues to be concerns domestically about dangerous pathogens and the potential for lab leaks. The White Coat Waste Project, which was the watchdog group that originally uncovered US-funded GoF research in Wuhan, recently uncovered that an NIH employee at Rocky Mountain Laboratories attempted to smuggle viral hemorrhagic fever into the US. Laura Loomer reported that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confirmed that the whistleblower allegations are true and that the employee, Vincenet Munster, will be referred to the FBI for likely charges.

The HighWire reported in November about the creation of domestic tick colonies to study Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), a revelation also uncovered by WCWP. The research is being conducted, in part, at the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in the heart of livestock country in Kansas. The NBAF was once located on Plum island where tick research was being conducted just miles from the first known domestic outbreak of Lyme disease on Lyme, Connecticut.

While this research is not classified as gain-of-function, biosafety experts caution that BSL 3 and 4 virus research is dangerous and the potential for a lab leak is not zero, regardless of the safety protocols that are in place. There was a CCHF exposure incident reported at Rocky Mountain Labs in November and publicly reported in January. The latest whistleblower report reveals that the exposure incident occurred when an infected monkey that was being tortured bit an employee. The whistleblower alleges that this incident was hidden and covered up so most of the RML staff was unaware.

In February, a residential biolab in Las Vegas was raided years after it was publicly reported by the Daily Caller in connection to a residential biolab in California. USDA-funded research in Spain was being investigated as the source of an African Swine Flu outbreak. Authorities have ruled out the possibility that the outbreak started from the lab despite the fact that the first case was found just a few hundred meters from the lab.

These incidents showcase national security and global health concerns related to US-funded research of highly pathogenic viruses whether the research itself is classified as gain-of-function or not.