The definition of insanity is giving power to government bureaucrats and expecting good results. A 2020 email from then-NIH Director Francis Collins to NIH Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak showed the government officials trying to figure out how to lift then-President Donald Trump’s ban on EcoHealth. This came after years of NIH funding for EcoHealth to conduct bat coronavirus gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, where COVID-19 eventually leaked from a lab.
EpochTV host Hans Mahncke shared a screenshot of the email with the comment, “After Trump cancelled EcoHealth’s Wuhan lab grant, NIH’s director and deputy director discussed how they could get the ban lifted. Weird how the two top honchos were so deeply and personally involved in a grant they professed to know so little about.” Francis Collins is also the pro-censorship official who called for supposed “misinformation” spreaders to be “brought to justice” in late 2021. Collins also defended the damaging COVID-19 measures NIH supported and the actions he and Dr. Anthony Fauci took to shut down any debate or alternative solutions.
The email is part of a series of documents obtained by Guardian contributor Jimmy Tobias.
Got another batch of NIH FOIA documents back today. Much of the material has been made public before, and much of it is redacted, but you can find the full set of documents at the @documentcloud link below. pic.twitter.com/g3RQnmCK2m
— Jimmy Tobias (@JamesCTobias) May 1, 2023
Mahncke’s tweet:
After Trump cancelled EcoHealth's Wuhan lab grant, NIH's director and deputy director discussed how they could get the ban lifted.
Weird how the two top honchos were so deeply and personally involved in a grant they professed to know so little about. pic.twitter.com/XaV5WAGcHR
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) May 1, 2023
In April 2020, Donald Trump cut off funding to the EcoHealth program doing gain-of-function research in a Wuhan lab, a move that drew criticism and whines from mainstream media and government at the time. Sadly, the funding ban doesn’t seem to have lasted very long, as documentation shows NIH gave EcoHealth another grant for working with the Wuhan lab in July 2020. That would be about a month after Collins and Tabak had the above discussion about ending the EcoHealth suspension.
The heavily redacted email, as shared by Hans Mahncke, was from “Collins, Francis (NIH/OD) [E]” to “Tabak, Lawrence (NIH/OD) [E]” and said: “Hi Larry, Have you talked with Mike about what would be the perfect set of requirements to lift the suspension on EcoHealth?” The June 14, 2020, email has a large redacted paragraph with the ending, “What else? FC.” Then “Larry” Tabak replied that same day (in fact less than an hour later). Unfortunately, the only unredacted part of that email is, “Here are additional elements from Mike.” These email conversation came well after credible allegations that COVID-19 was leaked from the very Wuhan lab where EcoHealth had been supporting coronavirus research.
The list of people and organizations who pressured NIH to keep giving EcoHealth taxpayer money simply because Orange Man Bad and totally irrespective of science or the fact that EcoHealth almost certainly helped seed the pandemic, is breathtakingly long. Here are some more names: https://t.co/VsD833WNNw pic.twitter.com/j9b1Jsvjr1
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) May 1, 2023
Collins made “untruthful” statements when questioned about NIH funding of Wuhan coronavirus research, denying NIH support for such research. Collins also repeatedly pushed damaging COVID-19 measures such as masking for kids and COVID-19 vaccines. He even hyperbolically called the vaccines an “answer to prayer” from God.
The Collins-Tabak email is already attracting notice from prominent conservatives. Article III Project head Mike Davis retweeted Mahncke’s tweet, and New York Post investigative journalist Miranda Devine quote tweeted it with the comment, “Well well well.”
Judicial Watch recently obtained documents showing the U.S. government (NIH) didn’t just fund bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan lab leading up to the leak of COVID-19. The government gave another grant for work with the Wuhan lab in July 2020, long after COVID-19 likely leaked from the lab where it was probably created. The funding, which apparently poured in from 2013 through mid-2020, went to EcoHealth Alliance.
Francis Collins and his NIH colleagues have a lot of death and damage to answer for.
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