 Senator Paul. Dr. Fauci, I don't expect you today to admit that you approved of NIH funding for gain of function research in Wuhan, but your repeated denials have worn thin and a majority of Americans frankly don't believe you. Even the NIH now admits that EcoHealth Alliance did perform experiments in Wuhan that created viruses not found in nature that actually did gain in lethality. The facts are clear. The NIH did fund gain of function research in Wuhan despite your protestations. You can deny it all you want, but even the Chinese authors of the paper in their paper admit that viruses not found in nature were created and, yes, they gained in infectivity. Your persistent denials, though, are not simply a stain on your reputation but are clear and present danger to the country and to the world. As Professor Kevin S. Felt of MIT has written, gain of function research looks like a gamble that civilization can't afford to risk, and yet here we are again with you steadfast in your denials. Why does it matter? Because gain of function research with laboratory created viruses not found in nature could cause a pandemic even worse the next time. We're suffering today from one that has a mortality of approximately 1 percent that are experimenting with viruses that have mortalities of between 15 and 50 percent. Yes, our civilization could be at risk from one of these viruses. Experiments that combine unknown viruses with known pandemic causing viruses are incredibly risky. Experiments that combine unknown viruses with coronaviruses that have as much as 50 percent mortality could endanger civilization as we know it. And here you sit, unwilling to accept any responsibility for the current pandemic and unwilling to take any steps to prevent gain of function research from possibly unleashing an even more deadly virus. You mislead the public by saying that the published viruses could not be COVID. Well, exactly no one is alleging that. No one is alleging that the published viruses by the Chinese are COVID. What we are saying is that this was risky type of research, gain of function research. It was risky to share this with the Chinese and that COVID may have been created from a not yet revealed virus. We don't anticipate the Chinese are going to reveal the virus if it came from their lab. You know that, but you continue to mislead. You continue to support NIH money going to Wuhan. You continue to say you trust the Chinese scientist. You appear to have learned nothing from this pandemic. Will you today finally take some responsibility for funding gain of function research in Wuhan? Senator, with all due respect, I disagree with so many of the things that you've said. First of all, gain of function is a very nebulous term. We have spent not us but outside bodies a considerable amount of effort to give a more precise definition to the type of research that is of concern that might lead to a dangerous situation. You are aware of that. That is called P3CO. We're aware that you deleted gain of function from the NIH website. Well, I can get back to that a moment if we have time, but let's get back to the operating framework and guide rails of which we operate under. When you have ignored them, the guidelines are very, very clear that you have to be dealing with a pathogen that clearly is shown and very likely to be highly transmissible in an uncontrollable way in humans and to have a high degree of morbidity and mortality and that you do experiments to enhance that, hence the word EPPP, enhanced pathogens So when EcoHealth Alliance took the virus, SAC014 and combined it with WIV1 and caused a recombinant virus that doesn't exist in nature and it made mice sicker, mice that had humanized cells, you're saying that that's not gain of function research? According to the framework and guidelines, so what you're doing is defining a way gain of function. You're simply saying it doesn't exist because you changed the definition on the NIH website. This is terrible and you're completely trying to escape the idea that we should do something about trying to prevent a pandemic from leaking from a lab. The preponderance of evidence now points towards this coming from the lab and what you've done is changed the definition on your website to try to cover your ass, basically. That's what you've done. You've changed the website to try to have a new definition that doesn't include the risky research that's going on. Until you admit that it's risky, we're not going to get anywhere. You have to admit that this research was risky. The NIH has now rebuked them. Your own agency has rebuked them. But the thing is, is you're still unwilling to admit that they gained in function when they say they became sicker. They gained in lethality. It's a new virus. That's not gain of function? According to the definition that is currently operable, you know, Senator, let's make it clear for the people who are listening. The current definition was done over a two to three year period by outside bodies, including the NSABB, two conferences by the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine on December 2014, March 2016. We commissioned external risk benefit assessment. And then, on January of 2017, the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the White House issued the current policy. And coincidentally, I haven't changed any definition. On the same day the NIH said that, yes, there was a gain of function in Wuhan, the same day the definition appeared, the new definition, to try to define away what's going on in Wuhan. Until you accept it, until you accept responsibility, we're not going to get anywhere close to trying to prevent another lab leak of this dangerous sort of experiment. You won't admit that it's dangerous, and for that lack of judgment, I think it's time that you resign. Thank you, Senator Pollan. I would like to give the time to Dr. Fatsch. Yeah. Well, there were so many things that are egregious misrepresentation here, Madam Chair, that I don't think I'd be able to refute all of them. But just a couple of them for the listens to hear for. You have said that I am unwilling to take any responsibility for the current pandemic. I have no responsibility for the current pandemic, the current pandemic. Okay. Number two, you said the overwhelming amount of evidence indicates that's a lab leak. I believe most card carrying viral phylogenists and molecular virologists would disagree with you that is much more likely, even though we leave open all possibilities, it's much more likely that this was a natural occurrence. Third, you say we contested 80,000 animals and no animals have been found with COVID. Senator Pollan, the time has set first. And third, you made a statement just a moment ago that's completely incorrect, where you say we continue to support research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. You approved it in August of last year. No, no. Your statement says, quote, I wrote it down as you were writing. You continue to support research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. You were in committee a month ago and said you still trust the Chinese scientists and you still support the research over there. You said it a month ago. Senator Pollan, I have allowed Dr. Fauci to respond. You've had your time. He's going to be dishonest to you, ought to be jowling. Senator Pollan, we will allow Dr. Fauci to respond after you have given accusations like that. Dr. Fauci. Well, I don't have any more to say, except to say that as usual, and I have a great deal of respect for this body of the Senate, and it makes me very uncomfortable to have to say something, but he is egregiously incorrect in what he says. Thank you. Thank you. The history will figure that out all the time. But we will turn to Senator Hassan. Thank you. Thanks for watching. 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