"Important to note that Fauci authored a 2012 paper arguing for gain-of-function research," Musk tweeted. He then cited an article published by Yahoo on March 2021, where Fauci backed the gain-of-function experiments based on his paper written back in 2012.
According to Fauci, the research is "important work" and the benefits of such experiments as well as the resulting knowledge outweigh the risks.
"Some good nuggets in the article. 'Gain-of-function' in this context is just another way of saying 'bioweapon,'" the tech mogul pointed out.
In the paper, the retiring National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director said such research involves making viruses more infectious and/or deadly.
A lot of experts have been coming out with analyses that found the possibility of COVID-19 to have originated from a potential lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in Wuhan, China, where gain-of-function experiments on bat coronaviruses had been conducted.
Musk noted that former President Barack Obama "wisely put this on pause, but Fauci restarted it." In 2014, the Obama administration paused funding for gain-of-function experiments in 22 fields, including those involving SARS, influenza and MERS because of the increased risk such experimentation carries of causing a pandemic.
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When Fauci wrote the paper supporting gain-of-function research, there was a voluntary ban on such experiments related to highly infectious influenza viruses. Yet the EcoHealth Alliance diverted $600,000 in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the head agency of NIAID, to the WIV in the form of sub-grants from 2014 through 2019 to study bat coronaviruses.
Fauci maintained that no U.S. funding went to WIV for gain-of-function research, but conceded during congressional testimony last year that it was impossible to guarantee that researchers at the WIV did not use American funds to perform gain-of-function research on coronaviruses. (Related: Fauci "knew" he was funding illegal gain-of-function research, says former CDC director.)
Musk also took a swipe on Fauci earlier in December, saying: "My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci." While the post did not include context, it still drew support from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
Also, Twitter user @hodgetwins replied to Musk's tweet: "Let me guess. You found messages between Twitter execs and our government (Fauci and team) pushing for censorship of anyone that didn't go along with their narrative on COVID?" Musk responded with a trophy emoticon. He also replied with a simple "Yes" when another user inquired if this will be explained in the next set of Twitter Files.
While Musk's tweet acquired roughly half a million likes in its first few hours online, the post also received backlash. Peter Hotez, a vaccine scientist and virology professor, defended Fauci's work at the forefront of U.S. pandemic mitigation efforts and urged Musk to remove the post.
"For the record: Dr. Fauci has done nothing wrong, except serve our nation. In the meantime, Mr. Musk should know that 200,000 Americans needlessly lost their lives from COVID due to this kind of antiscience rhetoric and disinformation. Elon, I'm asking you to take down this Tweet," Hotez wrote. Musk has not responded publicly.
About an hour before posting the tweet about Fauci, Musk shared a meme with a caption that read in part, "Just one more lockdown," which could be interpreted as an allusion to Fauci's advocacy for safety mandates that public health experts, including those in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, agreed were helpful in slowing the spread of COVID-19 before vaccines became widely available.
Check out BiologicalWeapons.news to know more about the COVID-19 bioweapon.
Watch the video below that talks about how the White House panics after Musk slams Fauci's funding of the gain-of-function research in Wuhan.
This video is from the NewsClips on Brighteon.com.
NIH awards new grant to group behind covid gain-of-function research in Wuhan.
Research group says covid is "biological warfare" by the CCP.