A day after it was revealed that the US government funded a dangerous research at Wuhan Institute of Virology in China before COVID-19 pandemic, Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday demanded the arrest of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former Chief Medical Advisor to the US President.
On Thursday, Lawrence Tabak, a principal deputy director at National Institutes of Health, revealed to Congress that NIH funded risky “gain-of-function” research in Wuhan lab.
Representative Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.), a member of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, asked Tabak about the NIH’s support to Wuhan Institute of Virology through the Manhattan-based nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance.
“It depends on your definition of gain-of-function research,” Tabak replied, adding that “If you’re speaking about the generic term, yes, we did.”
Tabak’s response contradicts Fauci’s repeated denials of the same.
During his appearance in Congress in May 2021, he claimed that NIH has never and “does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
Netizens react as Musk demand arrest of Fauci
“Prosecute/Fauci,” Musk tweeted, posting The Post’s Friday front page with a photo of Fauci and the heading “SICK LIES.”
Although Musk did not specify what criminal charges Fauci should face, House Republicans have proposed fraud and misleading Congress. Both felonies can result in up to five years in jail.
Reacting to Musk’s post, one of his followers wrote: “Fauci deserves a prison cell!” Another X user commented, “He’s always been a liar”.
Also Read: Covid-19 social distancing was not based on scientific data, Fauci admits
Know more about Wuhan lab’s experiments
Notably, the Chinese lab is accused of releasing the deadly respiratory virus, which claimed lives of at least 1,190,546 residents in the US, and caused massive financial, social, and educational loss around the world, as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
According to documents disclosed by the Intercept in late 2021, the Manhattan-based organization EcoHealth Alliance utilised Fauci’s agency money to fund the Chinese institute’s trials that transformed three bat coronaviruses that were not connected to COVID 19.
When human-type receptors were introduced to “humanised” mice, the researchers discovered that the viruses became far more contagious.
On Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the NIH, prohibited EcoHealth from obtaining government funding for the next three years.
While the world remains unaware about the origins of COVID-19 due to refusal of the Chinese government to permit an unbiased international probe, the FBI and the Energy Department suspect the epidemic originated following a leak from Wuhan lab.
Moreover, US President Joe Biden has spoken less about the cause of the outbreak, but his GOP rival Donald Trump has advocated compelling China to pay $10 trillion in “reparations.”
