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Two members of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform want the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to produce the transcript of a conference call between Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins during which the two discussed possible origins of COVID-19.

In a letter this week to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote:

“It was on this conference call that Drs. Fauci and Collins were first warned that COVID-19 may have leaked from the [Wuhan Institute of Virology] and, further, may have been intentionally genetically manipulated.”

Reps. Comer and Jordan also wrote that despite Fauci’s claims to the contrary, he knew the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded gain of function research in Wuhan through a grant to Eco-Health Alliance.

“It is unclear if Dr. Fauci reported any of these issues to his superiors,” Comer and Jordan wrote. “We need to know the entirety of what Dr. Fauci knew and when he knew it.”

The letter followed the release of emails revealing Fauci may have withheld information pointing to the possibility that the SARS Co-V-2 virus originated in the lab in Wuhan, China.

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The Congressmen gave HHS until Jan. 18 to respond to questions put forth in the letter, including:

  1. Did Drs. Fauci or Collins warn anyone at the White House about the potential COVID-19 originated in a lab and could be intentionally genetically manipulated?
  2. If these concerns were not shared, why was the decision to keep them quiet made?
  3. What new evidence, if any, came to light about COVID-19 between Feb. 1, 2020, and Feb. 4, 2020, to alter the belief it originated in a lab?
  4. Did Drs. Fauci or Collins edit the Nature Medicine paper entitled “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2”?
  5. Would having this knowledge earlier have benefitted either vaccine or treatment development?
  6. By February 1, 2020, were Drs. Fauci or Collins aware of the State Department’s
  7. warnings about WIV safety?
  8. Would this warning have changed the early response to the COVID-19 pandemic?

The letter concluded:

“By continuing to refuse to cooperate with our request, your agencies are choosing to hide information that will help inform the origins of the ongoing pandemic, prevent future pandemics, respond to future pandemics, inform the United States’ current national security posture, and restore confidence in our public health experts. HHS and NIH’s continued obstruction is likely to cause irreparable harm to the credibility of these agencies.”

Children’s Health Defense in September called for an investigation into Fauci’s role in gain-of-function research.