Chinese Scientists Visited Fauci’s Agency Years Before Pandemic Started: Documents

Newly released emails show Chinese scientists from Wuhan visited NIAID in 2017 to share information about the risk of a novel virus emerging from bats.

Dr. Anthony Fauci in Washington on Nov. 22, 2022. Win McNamee/Getty Images

Newly obtained emails have revealed that scientists working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which has been in the spotlight as a potential ground zero for COVID-19, visited Dr. Anthony Fauci’s institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2017, only a few months before the NIH lifted a pause on high-risk virology research.

Speculation has been rife on the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus since the first cases of COVID-19 appeared near the Wuhan lab in late 2019. Initially, the hypothesis that COVID could have resulted from a lab leak was dismissed by some prominent figures in the field, including Dr. Fauci. However, many experts persevered with their independent analyses, which three years later has even seen government agencies begin to concede that a lab leak remains a possible source of the outbreak.

In newly released emails obtained by the nonprofit research group U.S. Right to Know through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the NIH, it was revealed that WIV senior scientist Shi Zhengli visited the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in June 2017. She was scheduled to hold a presentation about novel coronaviruses. The NIAID is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the NIH, which is itself an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Ms. Shi researches SARS-like coronaviruses of bat origin and directs the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the WIV. According to the emails, EcoHealth Alliance, an American nonprofit research organization that receives funding from the NIH and works closely with the WIV, arranged Ms. Shi’s visit to NIAID. EcoHealth Alliance also acted as an intermediary between WIV and the NIAID in the past, arranging collaboration on projects and sometimes subcontracting work to the Chinese lab.

“Our Chinese Co-investigator, Zhengli Shi from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, will be visiting the U.S. in June to give a talk at a conference here. I'd really like to come and visit you and your colleagues at NIH with her while she’s here,” EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak said in an email in April 2017.

Other emails show the conference was billed as one about “SARS, MERS, and the risk of novel viral emergence from bats.” Mr. Daszak spoke during the presentation as well. “Zhengli and I will do a double act,” he said in an email discussing the conference.

Another email from May 24, 2017, reportedly showed Mr. Daszak seeking security clearance for Ms. Shi ahead of her eventual June visit to the United States. Peng Zhou, an associate professor at WIV, was also listed as requiring security clearance to visit the country and institute.

A researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China's central Hubei Province feeds a bat with a worm in a 2017 video. Screenshot

According to U.S. Right to Know, Ms. Shi’s security screening for the visit wasn’t included in the documents they received and it remains unclear if the WIV’s history of ties to the Chinese military were factored into her screening.

Wuhan Lab Worked With Chinese military

The WIV has conducted research projects for the Chinese military since at least 2017, according to U.S. intelligence. A 2021 State Department fact sheet makes the same claim. Whether Ms. Shi’s ties to the Chinese military were investigated as part of her security screening isn’t known. Following the presentation, Mr. Daszak thanked NIAID program officer Erik Stemmy in a June 29, 2017, email and also mentioned it was great to “introduce our collaborators to you personally.”

Only four months later, Dr. Fauci met with Mr. Daszak for reasons unknown. In a 2022 sworn deposition with the attorney generals of Missouri and Louisiana, Dr. Fauci claimed he had no recollection of the meeting. He even went so far as to say they had never crossed paths, stating he had met hundreds of people while at scientific meetings. A picture of Dr. Fauci and Mr. Daszak together does exist, proving they have met at least once.

Peter Daszak speaks to media upon arriving at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on Feb. 3, 2021. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

By December 2017, after a three year pause, NIH resumed funding for gain of function research, which allowed scientists to alter the function of a virus to better understand its life cycle and evolution. However, critics of these types of experiments argued at the time they were unsafe and had the potential to cause a pandemic. In the past, Congress has held hearings about the NIH’s decision to resume gain of function research as well as the appropriateness of collaborating with China-based labs.

U.S. Right to Know speculates that this latest trove of emails, along with previously released information, proves that Dr. Fauci and his top aides knew of the novel coronavirus research underway at WIV, despite their claims to the contrary. The non-profit also questions how and why a virology experiment that could generate pandemic viruses was outsourced to a rival nation—especially one that has had fraught relations with the United States on a regular basis.

The latest release of information around the origins of COVID-19 comes just as Dr. Fauci is scheduled to give sworn testimony to congressional investigators in a closed-door transcribed interview over two days from Jan. 8 to Jan. 9. The subject of the hearing will cover the origins of COVID-19, the effectiveness of vaccine mandates, and ways to prevent future outbreaks.

Last year, U.S. Right to Know released another stack of emails revealing that Dr. Fauci, Mr. Daszak, and another scientist, frequent collaborator Ralph Baric, briefed top U.S. intelligence officials in early 2020 about the origins of COVID-19. During that meeting and others, the possibility of COVID-19 having a lab origin was downplayed.

By April of the same year, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced that the intelligence community had reached a consensus COVID-19 was not man-made or genetically modified.  Although, in the fact sheet, it was conceded the virus may have stemmed from “an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.”

The Epoch Times has contacted the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Dr. Anthony Fauci for comment.