AMAC Exclusive
Even as President Biden threatens to leverage the full power of the federal government against Americans who dare to oppose his administration’s policies, he has yet to issue the same full throated condemnation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – even as evidence mounts that the Chinese government engaged in a massive cover up about the origins of COVID-19 for which the world continues to pay a very heavy price.
Back in April 2020, President Donald Trump first raised what came to be known as the “lab leak theory.” The former President was severely criticized for this “conspiracy theory.” Some, including Biden, even accused Trump of “racism and xenophobia.”
But then, evidence began trickling out that validated President Trump’s initial suspicion that the virus leaked from the Wuhan lab. One totally unexpected and credible source of support for the lab leak theory turns out to be the U.S. government itself, which was revealed in some recently released documentation to have partially funded controversial research at the Wuhan lab on the very types of coronaviruses at the heart of the global pandemic. The type of research the Chinese were working on is called “gain-of-function”, which seeks to genetically modify viruses in the lab so they become more transmissible and deadly. The charitable explanation for conducting such research is that if you can develop treatments for more dangerous viruses in the lab, then treating less dangerous versions in the outside world becomes easier.
The problem, however, is that by making viruses more transmissible, they become exponentially more deadly if they escape from that lab. Only a few labs worldwide are certified to perform gain of function research. Most are located in the United States or Europe, and outbreaks of other diseases like SARS linked to China have led some in the scientific community to question if it was safe to allow Chinese labs to conduct such dangerous research.
Senator Rand Paul famously criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci for his repeated denials that the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—the government agency Fauci works for—ever provided funding for gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab. But recent revelations from The Intercept—more than 900 pages of emails and various other materials—reveal that the NIH did in fact fund gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, beginning in 2014.
Alina Chan, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute, was quoted in The Intercept saying these government documents provide authoritative support to justify taking seriously the theory that the pandemic had its origin in a leak from the Wuhan lab where controversial gain of function research was being carried out by the Chinese. “In this proposal [for NIH grant money],” she said, “they [EcoHealth Alliance, those carrying out the research] actually point out that they know how risky this work is. They keep talking about people potentially getting bitten—and they kept records of everyone who got bitten.”
So the lab-leak theory was plausible from the beginning, just as President Trump said. Basic common sense suggested it, while the researchers who received money from NIH admitted it was possible themselves. That’s why the Wall Street Journal recently noted, “As China’s propaganda machine pushes to draw attention away from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Americans who dismissed the lab-leak theory have a conflict of interest.” That would include Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Even the World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes that China has lied repeatedly on this issue. As Jamie Metzl, a member of the WHO’s advisory board said, “The problem is the Chinese have engaged in a massive cover-up that is going on until today involving destroying samples, hiding records, placing a universal gag order on Chinese scientists and imprisoning Chinese citizen journalists asking the most basic questions.”
But does President Biden excoriate China for this? No. Instead, he excoriates and demonizes his fellow Americans.
Biden’s failure to stand up to China and hold the Chinese responsible for the trillions of dollars in damages from the pandemic is in stark contrast to what we’ve seen from former President Trump. Even out of office, Trump has insisted that China must be held accountable for the coronavirus pandemic. In early June, the former President declared, “The time has come for America and the world to demand reparations and accountability from the Communist Party of China. We should all declare [with] one unified voice that China must pay.” The former President even suggested that the “down payment” for these reparations could be paid by China if countries that owe them money cancelled their debts.
Former Vice President Mike Pence also called for similar actions against China in a speech at the Heritage Foundation. Among other things, Pence suggested moving the 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing to another city if China did not stop its persecution of the Uyghurs and if China did not cooperate with American intelligence organizations and scientific investigators about the origins of COVID. If the Beijing Olympics were moved elsewhere, it would be a major blow to China’s international propaganda campaign.
Instead of addressing the China’s outrageous actions, President Biden is angrily lecturing anyone who disagrees with him that his patience is “wearing thin” and even suggesting that his political opponents are an equal threat to the terrorists who perpetrated 9/11, surely one of the most grotesque political attacks of all time. Meanwhile, the nations of the world are left waiting for President Biden’s patience to “wear thin” with the CCP so that the international community can hold China accountable and prevent such a tragedy from occurring in the future.