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Sen. Ron Johnson demands watchdog probe of NIH over COVID records
Sen. Ron Johnson has asked the Department of Health and Humanღ Services’ inspector general to probe whether federal government scientists mishandled and concealed records about COVID-19 and other matters from the public.
Johnson (R-Wis.), 68, wrote a letter this week to HHS watchdog Christi Grimm requesting an investigation of alleged concealment and destruction of recor꧋ds at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) stretching back to 2014.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic revealed June 29 that a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) senior adviser used a private email to duck Fಌreedom of Information Act reque𓆉sts.
Dr. David Morens, who advised former NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci, said in a Sept. 29, 2021, email that he would “always try to communicate over gmail [sic] because my NIH email is FOIA’d consta𒆙ntly,” by the House panel show.
Morens told colleagues to forward emails “to any of my addresses and I will delete anything I don’t want to see in the New York Times,” adding that his “gmail [sic] was hacked, probably by these GoF [gain-of-function] ass—es” and he had asked government IT specialists to look into the matter on his private account.
The US government funded risky “gain-of-function” research at Chinese r꧋esearch institutions, which government virologists said may have led to the accidental release of SARS-CoV-2, according to other private communications by the House select subcommittee.
“These statements reveal an attempt to limit public access to ce🐭rtai🥀n communications directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially in violation of federal record keeping requirements,” Johnson told Grimm.
“If official agency IT services were used to assist Dr. Morens’ use of private email for official purposes, it raises questions about whether agency resources are being used appropriately and whether NIAID leadership is aware of or 🥀accepts these practices,” he added.
Johnson said Morens’ emails “have already drawn the attention 🤡of the National Archives and Records🍸 Administration, which in called on NIH to probe the communications and report back on any findings within 30 days.
The Republican senator said Grimm’s office had declined to answer an earlier request for a briefing on the “questionable email practices” and would “neither confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoi🌼ng investigations.”
An NIH whistleblower informed Republican staff on the House Oversight Committee in that he was toไlꦡd to “destroy any notes” from meetings about federal grants made to the Wuhan Institute of Virology dating back to 2014.
Between 2014 and 2021, the NIH and US Agency for International Development awarded $1,413,720 to the Wuhan Instit▨ute of ♒Virology in sub-grants, including to carry out gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses, 🍬the Government Accountability Office reported in June.
COVID subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) last month released more than 8,000 pages of internal communications that showed government scientists trying to downplay lab-leak concerns and avoid blaming China for the global pandemic.
Two scientists later testified to Congress about a March 2020 Nature Medicine article they wrote dismissing the so-called “lab leak theory” after being prompted by Fauci to do so.
In a Feb. 1, 2020, email, Fauci also expressed alarm that “scientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments to determine that molecular mechanisms ඣassociated with bat viruses adapting to human infection” — a statement he denied before Congress the following year.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.🌞) sparred with Fauci during 2021 congressional hearings after the former White House chief medical adviser said “the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
The Kentucky Republican has since asked the Justice Department and Washington, DC, US Attorney Matthew Graves to consider charging Fauci with making false statements to Congress.
