From Nature, July 6, 2016. Hat tip to @LokiJulianus on Twitter for finding this:
The quote where Holdren mentions gain-of-function research isn’t even close to the main point of the story, however. It’s mentioned in passing, matter-of-factly.
And this makes sense, because obviously 2016 was pre-Covid. 99.9% of Americans had never even heard of the term “gain-of-function research” back in 2016.
Anyway, here’s the passage in screenshot-form. In case Nature decides to retroactively “edit” this post given that it’s now going around on Twitter:
Now this obviously doesn’t prove the lab leak theory because Covid isn’t mentioned at all. It doesn’t even mention Wuhan.
But it does completely obliterate the claim that the US was not involved in gain-of-function research in and with China.
Again, it wasn’t a big deal to mention this back in 2016. There was no Covid-2019 back then. The US government’s involvement in gain-of-function research wasn’t a big deal back then.
But it is now.
I think John Holdren needs to be hauled before Congress and questioned. How far back does this research go? Could he elaborate more on specifically what research he was referring to?
How involved was Fauci and the NIH in this gain-of-function research?
Did any of this gain-of-function research involve coronaviruses? What about bat coronaviruses?
It’s getting awfully smoky in here. How long until the fire is discovered?