National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Francis Collins accused Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) Friday of spreading “misinformation” about the use of federal grant money by the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
Earlier this week, Paul accused the NIH and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of funding so-called “gain of function” research into bat coronaviruses through grants. Gain of function research refers to the process of studying viruses by making them more virulent and transmissible in people.
“It’s really unfortunate that a lot of misinformation is being spread around here,” Collins insisted on Fox News’ “Special Report”.
“Let me be very clear, we never approved any grant that would have supported gain of function research on dangerous coronaviruses to see if they could be more transmissible or lethal for individuals in the human species,” he added. “That was not something that we would have done … we never approved that kind of research and that’s something Sen. Paul might want to be a bit more clear about.”
You just didn’t listen to the questions, did you? No, the NIH did not specifically give funds to gain of function research by name, but they DID ON A LARGE SCALE give money to the cab where they KNEW GOF research was being conducted,
Funny how words work, right?