“Is Bill Going Rogue?”: Collins, Fauci, and the Gates Foundation’s Unseen Influence Over NIH

Senator Rand Paul released a trove of documents related to Bill Gates, his foundation, and his relationship with the NIH, including former NIH Director Francis Collins and former NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci. Senator Paul flagged several items out of the 1,375-page release and suggested that Gates was trying to “secretly run a federal health agency.”

Gates had Q clearance from June 11, 2014 to December 6, 2021, which is the highest level of top secret access within the Department of Energy that is usually restricted to individuals who need access to classified information regarding nuclear weapons and related activities. Gates is the founder of nuclear energy startup TerraPower.

Collins emailed Fauci and other NIH colleagues asking for information about the NIH’s grants to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). He wrote in May, 2018, “For reasons I can’t currently explain, I need answers to the following: 1) are we giving any grants to BMGF (I assume no) 2) what are our current collaborative projects with BMGF?” Dr. Fauci responded back, “I have no idea how to respond to this email from Francis… He needs an answer by tomorrow….. YIKES!”

Collins was messaging in regard to a White House meeting with President Trump and HHS Secretary Alex Azar. Azar was trying to “guess” what the meeting would be about and thought one possibility was the universal flu vaccine, because Gates talked to President Trump about that. Collins asked Fauci how Gates’ $12 million for the vaccine could add much more to the investment NIAID is making and asked, “Is this coordinated or is Bill going rogue?”

Senator Paul highlighted that DARPA gave the Gates Foundation a private briefing on four military biological threat programs on May 3, 2022, including PREEMPT and ReVector. PREEMPT’s aim is “targeting viruses in animals before they emerge in humans,” with a transmissible Lassa vaccine project that has an “internal off switch” and potential deployment in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and other West African countries.

ReVector seeks to create “technologies to modulate the profile of skin-associated volatile molecules by changing the organisms that are present in the skin microbiome and/or their metabolic processes.”

Senator Paul said, “Bill Gates had no official public health authority, yet he was given a seat at the table in high-level COVID briefings and played a direct role in shaping America’s pandemic response. Private billionaires should not be steering national policy behind closed doors.”

In 2022, Gates released a book titled “How to Prevent the Next Pandemic.” Before releasing the book, he sent the manuscript to Dr. Fauci for editing help. Dr. David Morens, who is now indicted on federal conspiracy charges, also provided granular comments for Gates on the manuscript and destroyed it after reading.

Dr. Fauci said he skimmed the entire book, but read Chapter 9 carefully and provided feedback specifically on that chapter. That is the final chapter in the book, titled “Make—and fund—a plan for preventing pandemic,” that provides details for how governments should spend money and utilize existing foundations and organizations to handle various aspects of the pandemic preparedness plan.

Gates proposes the World Health Organization manages the Global Epidemic Response and Mobilization (GERM) team, including 3,000 experts across various fields, including epidemiology, genetics, modeling, logistics, and diplomacy. Gates suggests this should be funded with about $1 billion each year, and the money should primarily come from wealthy governments. GERM would scan for outbreaks, declare them, coordinate modeling and data-sharing, advise on product priorities, and help organize responses. There would also be regular “germ games” or simulation exercises like Event 201 that was co-hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) approximately a month and a half before the first COVID-19 cases were reported in Wuhan.

The pandemic preparedness model relies upon the BMGF, now known as the Gates Foundation, and Gates-founded vaccine initiatives like Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued a message to Gavi in 2025 announcing that the US would be withholding the funds that were allocated for the program. The Biden administration pledged $2.53 billion to the Gates-backed organization from 2022 through 2030. Secretary Kennedy remarked about Gavi’s coordination with the WHO to issue social media platform recommendations to “silence dissenting views, to stifle free speech and legitimate questions during that period.” He also pointed to “questionable recommendations” by Gavi to recommend pregnant women receive COVID-19 vaccines.

Secretary Kennedy said there is much that he admires about Gavi’s mission to provide affordable medicine across the world. He added, “Unfortunately, in its zeal to promote universal vaccination, it has neglected the key issue of vaccine safety.” Kennedy said Gavi has dealt with vaccine safety issues as a public relations problem rather than a public health concern. He provided one example of Gavi’s continued use of the DTP vaccine in favor of the safer DTaP vaccine and cited a 2017 study that found girls are 10 times more likely to die of all-causes after receiving the DTP vaccine than unvaccinated children.

Kennedy called upon Gavi to re-earn the public trust and to consider the best science available, even if it contradicts established paradigms. Last week, HHS and the State Department issued a joint press release announcing that the funding stalemate is over and that $600 million in funds will be released to Gavi. The announcement states that Gavi has committed to moving away from mercury-containing vaccines and ending the “procurement and promotion of COVID-19 vaccines for routine immunization programs.” Secretary Kennedy hasn’t made any specific statements about the release of funds to Gavi.