National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci was invited to testify Tuesday at a forum examining the origins of Wuhan coronavirus. Fauci, under fire for potentially perjuring himself in previous testimony about the pandemic, has declined an invitation from Republican lawmakers to attend.
“The left-wing media called it a ‘fringe conspiracy theory,’ Big Tech censored it, activists in white lab coats dismissed it and Democrats ignored it, but there is growing evidence Communist China started the pandemic, covered it up, and is responsible for the deaths of more than 600,000 Americans and millions more worldwide,” Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Ranking Member Steve Scalise and House Oversight Committee Ranking Member James Comer released in a statement about the forum. “Despite Speaker Pelosi’s efforts to create diversions and cover this up, the American people deserve the truth and are demanding accountability, and House Republicans will insist on getting these answers."
“The American people deserve to know the truth, even if Washington Democrats refuse to seek it,” they continued.
Recently released emails belonging to Dr. Fauci and obtained through a Freedom of Information Act show he was told in January 2020 the virus looked like it had been "engineered" in a lab.
"On a phylogenetic tree the virus looks totally normal and the close clustering with bats suggest that bats serve as the reservoir. 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," NIH scientist Kristian Andersen said on January 31, 2020.
Fauci continued to downplay the lab theory during official White House briefings and for more than a year, Facebook censored stories on the topic. He's also denied funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through NIH grants. A number of Senators, including Dr. Rand Paul, are calling on him to resign.
"I would say we would remove [Fauci] from the position of authority," @RandPaul tells Newsmax. https://t.co/VlT7z8v2lm pic.twitter.com/qTA2r7s6ET
— Newsmax (@newsmax) June 24, 2021
While Fauci is refusing to show up, a number of other important witnesses will attend.
The Honorable Brett P. Giroir, former Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Admiral Giroir brings firsthand knowledge about the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As COVID-19 testing czar, he oversaw creating a nationwide testing apparatus from scratch which was made particularly difficult by China’s lack of transparency. Admiral Giroir will also discuss the investigatory failures of the World Health Organization and why a U.S.-led origins investigation is vital.
Dr. David Asher, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute: Dr. Asher has decades of national security experience and most recently led the U.S. Department of State’s COVID-19 origins investigation. His testimony will provide inside information into the origins investigation and the role of the Chinese government’s efforts to block a thorough and impartial investigation.
Dr. Richard Muller, Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of California Berkeley: Dr. Muller is an acclaimed scientist that used his own research to study available data in attempting to determine the origins of COVID-19. He recently penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal pointing out there is strong evidence COVID-19 was developed in a laboratory using gain-of-function acceleration.
Dr. Steven Quay, Founder, Atossa Therapeutics: Dr. Quay is one of a growing number of scientists dedicated to finding the origins of COVID-19. He has conducted his own research using the publicly available viral data and reached conclusions apart from outside influence. He brings significant scientific expertise to this endeavor including over 87 patents and hundreds of published scientific articles.