Newly released emails from the House Select Subcommittee reveal that leading scientists, including NIH adviser Dr. David Morens, discussed destroying email evidence related to bat coronavirus research and evading FOIA requests during the COVID-19 outbreak.
According to a recent batch of emails made public by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, leading scientists who had been tinkering with bat coronaviruses to improve human infection rates later planned to destroy email proof of their correspondence with the COVID-19 outbreak.
The correspondence centers on senior NIH adviser Dr. David Morens, who asked the NIH Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) office for assistance in evading records requests. At the moment, Morens is on administrative leave.
“Evidence in possession of the Select Subcommittee suggests that Dr. Morens, while employed by NIAID and NIH acted as an agent on behalf of a federal grantee, EcoHealth,” the Subcommittee notes. “Morens began assisting Dr. Daszak in how to respond to NIH compliance efforts,” the release continues – referring to EcoHealth Alliance boss Peter Daszak, whose organization was suspended this month from receiving federal funds for three years.
“I learned from our foia lady here how to make emails disappear after I am foia’d but before the search starts,” Morens wrote in a Feb. 24, 2021 email to an unknown recipient, adding “Plus i deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to gmail.“
In another email, Morens claims “With the help of our IT folks, I went over the whole computer and phone situation… Basically, my Gmail is safe from FOIA.”
“Please pass this on to Peter and I ask you both that NOTHING gets sent to me except to my gmail.“
In another email, Morens gave Daszak advice, saying, “We are all smart enough to know never to have smoking guns, and if we did we wouldn’t put them in emails, and if we found them we’d delete them.”
And in a different email to Peter Hotez, Morens writes “The email somehow fell into the hands of the Congressman, probably via FOIA of someone who didn’t delete it, as I did (delete all of Peter’s emails and others relating to origin) when the shit started hitting the fan.”
As Morens was making jokes about receiving a bribe from EcoHealth, Daszak humorously retorted, “There’s always going to be a kickback.” Five more years of FOIA requests are the first step. My only wish is that it doesn’t result in a five-year federal prison sentence or worse, a Chinese “re-education camp.”
“He has violated the ethical standards of conduct for executive branch employees and has potentially violated criminal law,” said Diane Cutler, a former investigator for the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, about Morens, the NY Post reports.
Both Republicans and Democrats on the panel were united in their denunciations of Morens.
“The information contained in these 30,000 pages of emails are deeply concerning, and in my opinion reflects poorly upon Dr. Morens and the Office of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease under Dr. Fauci’s leadership and the NIH under Dr. Francis Collins,” Subcommittee chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said in his opening remarks.
“Dr. Fauci’s NIAID was unfortunately less pristine than so many, including the media, would have had us all believe,” he added.
Ranking member Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) echoed Wenstrup’s remarks in calling Morens’ behavior was “deeply troubling” — but cautioned the emails were “not a breakthrough moment in actually understanding the actual origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.” -NY Post
Both Republicans and Democrats on the panel were united in their denunciations of Morens.
“The information contained in these 30,000 pages of emails are deeply concerning, and in my opinion reflects poorly upon Dr. Morens and the Office of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease under Dr. Fauci’s leadership and the NIH under Dr. Francis Collins,” Subcommittee chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said in his opening remarks.
“Dr. Fauci’s NIAID was unfortunately less pristine than so many, including the media, would have had us all believe,” he added.
Ranking member Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) echoed Wenstrup’s remarks in calling Morens’ behavior was “deeply troubling” — but cautioned the emails were “not a breakthrough moment in actually understanding the actual origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
-NY Post
Recently, GreatGameIndia reported that the NIH has restarted the ‘Bat Virus Grant’ to Peter Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit research organization in New York City. This new 4-year grant is a stripped-down version of the original.
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