I expect you are not surprised at all to learn that I think Anthony Fauci is a liar, extortion artist, and a fraud.

I am keeping my adjectives safe for work. My NSFW descriptions would be less charitable. Whether he is a criminal is up to others to decide, but his policy recommendations during the COVID pandemic have cause massive and irreparable harm. His legacy is one of destruction, but his reputation will remain strong due to the efforts of his friends.

Left-wing journalist Jimmy Tobias, who writes often for The Nation and The Guardian, has been a FOIA machine. He has been tracking down the origins of COVID and the likelihood of a coverup taking place at the highest levels of our government.

The coverup doesn’t seem to be about direct American involvement in the creation of COVID, but rather about the connections between COVID, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and US funding. Ass covering, essentially.

Tobias is a self-described FOIA fanatic, and has extracted documents out of the government. The first batch he got were redacted, so he sued in order to get the unreacted versions. He is still working his way through the reams of paper he must sort through, but already he has discovered exactly what you would expect.

They have been hiding quite a bit, and Anthony Fauci’s retirement is going to be busy answering questions.

I am reviewing the documents now, but some of this material was previously redacted and help sheds light on early NIH discussions re: origins of COVID-19: pic.twitter.com/juAeRALx1O

— Jimmy Tobias (@JamesCTobias) November 22, 2022

We don’t know all the secrets yet, but a few things pop out right away.

Remember, the US has been funneling money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, including funding “gain of function” research specifically intended to increase the virulence and dangerousness of viruses for research purposes. We funded the latter through the EcoHealth Alliance, as has been established decisively. That research was successful–they created a virulent virus that made mice, at least, sicker. And they did it in a lab that was not safe. This is established.

We don’t know if the effects would be the same on humans, although as you may recall 100% of the research done on the COVID boosters was in 8 mice, not humans, so clearly mice experiments can translate to humans. Even “fact checkers” debunking concerns about the paucity of evidence for safety and effectiveness concede that the data comes from 8 mice. So not comforting.

The scientists involved in investigating the origins of COVID looked at the WIV and came away…unimpressed. In fact, they describe the Institute as the “Wild West,” where dangerous deeds were the norm.

Fascinating. 4 February 2020, Farrar calls the US/western-funded research conducted with China the "Wild West", & they are already aware of "serial passage" in humanized transgenic mice being conducted at BSL-2. No wonder they reached for the black ink of redaction #originofcovid

— Jan Klimkowski (@JanKlimkowski) November 22, 2022

There is also a lot of back and forth about the quality of the science behind a famous paper claiming that COVID-19 was of natural origin. That paper, written by virologists who originally believed that COVID was man-made, was written after a single conference call with Anthony Fauci and some friends of his. They went from believing that COVID was engineered to–with no additional research–writing a scientific paper published in Nature Medicine insisting that COVID was completely natural.

Quite a reversal of opinion, and quite a rapid turnaround time. Right after the conference call. Coming to the conclusion that Fauci and company insisted was true. Writing a paper to prove it, despite the fact that Fauci and company claimed (back when they believed that the virus was engineered) that these scientists were not experts in coronaviruses at all. Suddenly, after a phone call, they were!

That paper, by the way, was funded by Anthony Fauci, who led the call “explaining” to them that COVID certainly had a natural origin.

This is a bad look, at the least. Fauci wanted them to say something, and they said it. Perhaps they believed it, but we know for certain that their careers depended upon his goodwill. And that he didn’t want to be connected to a lab leak at a lab he funded that was run like the “Wild West.”

All this seems noteworthy, at least.

Perhaps these scientists were convinced by Fauci and company that COVID could not be man made, but then why exactly publish a paper with no further research? Especially if Fauci and company told them that not being experts at coronaviruses they had made a basic mistake?

This is not how science usually works, and without a transcript of the call it is impossible to know the thinking behind it. One of the scientists involved wrote an email describing the call as organized to “challenge a certain theory,” not as an attempt to ferret out the truth.

At the very least this new trove of documents exposes the underbelly of how some science is done and the conflicts of interest that can distort what is put out to the public. The facts definitely demonstrate that Fauci and company had a strong interest in downplaying a man-made origin for COVID.

After all, they may have funded its development in a lab that had “Wild West”-type safeguards, meaning very few. Scientists who looked at the virus and concluded it was man-made–and there were even suggestions that the FBI and MI-5 get involved in ferreting out the truth–are summoned to a conference call in which 3 “experts” berate them for their assertions. And they change their minds, immediately!

None of the coronavirus scientists–supposed experts on specifically these viruses–write a paper describing their conclusions. Instead, the scientists who had insisted publicly that COVID was man-made reverse their position publicly, and themselves write a paper contradicting their earlier assertion. Again, seems odd. Not dispositive, but again noteworthy.

Is everybody pure as the driven snow? Perhaps. But it looks bad, to say the least.

Was coercion involved? Or was there a genuine change of heart? I hope we find out.

In fairness to all, here is a Twitter thread aimed at debunking the conspiracy implications. I don’t buy it completely, since everybody knew that the emails would eventually come out and hence would keep all pressure verbal, but clearly there is a strong case to be made that everything was innocent. I think they were hiding something. Dr. Rassmussen does not. She is an expert at virology, I on how politics and government work. Both forms of expertise are relevant, of course. So pick your poison.

You can decide:

Lots of speculation about what went down in the infamous 2/1/20 teleconference. Lab leak proponents think Fauci conspired with an international group of experts to cover up lab origin because evil gain of function virologist cartel.

Unsurprisingly, they are wrong. https://t.co/drIFKT37e5

— Dr. Angela Rasmussen (@angie_rasmussen) November 22, 2022