House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks at her weekly press conference at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on Dec. 8, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) 2022 Midterm Elections
By Jack Phillips January 25, 2022 Updated: January 26, 2022 biggersmallerPrint
After months of speculation on her future in Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday announced she is running for reelection.
In a video posted online, Pelosi said, “I am running for reelection to Congress and respectfully seek your support,” explaining that she believes her reelection could bolster Democrats’ and President Joe Biden’s agenda.
“While we’ve made progress,” she added, “much more needs to be done to improve people’s lives.” She also invoked the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol breach as another reason why she’s running again.
The 81-year-old, who was first elected to the House in 1987, was the first woman to serve as House speaker and was expected to step down, particularly as her party braces for the potential loss of its majority in the 2022 midterms. In November 2020, Pelosi reiterated that her current term as House speaker would be her last.
Based on her Tuesday announcement, it’s not clear if Pelosi will again seek the House speaker position.
During several interviews in 2021, Pelosi sought to downplay speculation that she would retire from office.
“People make their own decisions about timing” and “don’t have to comply with somebody else’s view,” she told MSNBC in June 2021, without elaborating. And months later, in October, Pelosi demurred when a CNN reporter asked about the retirement speculation.
It comes as some members of the House Democratic caucus have publicly suggested the idea that Pelosi hand over her leadership reins to a younger, fresher face. Self-described socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) can be counted among those, who told news outlets in 2020 that new leadership is needed.
Pelosi’s reelection bid might also be designed to prevent her Democratic caucus from further hemorrhaging members. Also on Tuesday, longtime Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) announced he would not seek reelection after his congressional district was redrawn.
“You backed me more than almost anyone in Tennessee history, making me the state’s third longest-serving member of Congress,” said Cooper, who spent 32 years in office.
With Cooper’s decision, it means that at least 29 Democratic lawmakers are retiring in 2022. In mid-January, Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) and Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) both announced their retirements.
For 2022’s midterms, Republicans need a net gain of five seats in the 435-member House of Representatives. On average, the party that wins the White House during a presidential election loses House seats in the forthcoming midterm election.
Republicans at the time said that the latest announcements were signs that the Democrats’ party majority is at risk.
“Nobody wants to run as a House Democrat because their majority is doomed,” Mike Berg, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement earlier in January.
Like it or not this is what FREE SPEECH is all about – expression. And when it comes to this leftist Demo-Rat appointed administration (that seems dedicated to doing everything opposite of MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN), well the expression is often one of anger. (Where is the support for this RECONFIGURATION OF AMERICA?)
I understand this wholeheartedly because the RULE OF LAW has been ignored for sometime in favor of the LEFTIST DEMO-RATS who have incrementally hi-jacked OUR COUNTRY to the point of absolute nonsense. Enough. You already know.
Watched part of this hearing by Senator Johnson yesterday morning (difficult to get going tied to the television – need to record the next presentation on OAN – no wonder LEFTIST DEMO RATS are trying to take OAN away from those American citizens who demand the truth from all these traitors who take our money for “news” and feed us nothing but bullshit CCP propaganda).
(though quite believable considering traditional Leftist Demo-Rat methods of operation – lies, deception, concealing truth, violating existing law, fabricating government documents, rigging local, state, and federal elections, etc)
…… what REAL SCIENCE and MEDICAL/SCIENTIFIC, ETC PROFESSIONALS were reporting as to the truth about the vaccine development, use, and negative health ramifications –
versus
what the AMERICAN PUBLIC AND WORLD were being told
(by these LEFTIST DEMO-RATS that have hi-jacked OUR COUNTRY AND LEGITIMATE PRESIDENT OF THE USA)
by OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT and subordinate departments, administrations, agencies, etc.
(— specifically under the current LEFTIST DEMO-RAT appointed administration thanks to a hi-jacked presidential election – in my echo chambered opinion – of course. lol)
FOUND IT!
WORTH THE TIME TO WATCH TOO (you can jump ahead to the 40′ mark – or do something else while waiting)
QUESTION: Why were these differing professional opinions silenced? (Could it be as simple as following the money and politically motivated abuse of government power and authority?)
This particular rant should have been a separate post, yeah? ….so…..
CHECK OUT the below explanation of “GASLIGHTING” and realize…..when you think about this in regards to the current COVID-19 PANDEMIC for example – the LEFTIST-DEMO RAT regime has been “gaslighting” American Patriots for a very long time from the FEDERAL, STATE and LOCAL government levels. It is a politically organized attack by unscrupulous individuals who do not think for themselves but only follow the “PARTY LINE”.
SOUND FAMILIAR?
Not unlike the current Board of Directors at the Lake Don Pedro Community Services District who in 2014 unethically rehired PETER KAMPA who was the corrupted GM in the mid 1990s who began the special interest reconfiguration of our COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT into a special benefit GROUNDWATER SUBSTITUTION FACILITY to provide an EXPENSIVE SPECIAL BENEFIT SUBSIDIZED GROUNDWATER SERVICE (in a designated drought prone area) TO PROPERTY ANNEXATIONS FRAUDULENTLY BROUGHT INTO THE DISTRICT WHICH CLEARLY VIOLATED THE STATE WATER LICENSE on where Merced River water could be legally transported and consumed! Gosh, same thing as our “national borders” being dropped to permit non stakeholders to enter, exploit and ultimately destroy EVERYTHING funded, built and intended for citizens of this country! Exact same thing but on a different level.
EVIL LEFTIST INFLUENCE EVERYWHERE! (Disguised? Oh yes, but look carefully)
Such individuals (where ever they set up their evil deceptions) continually abuse their positions of authority and power to push their LEFTIST AGENDA TO DESTROY AMERICA and disenfranchise her legal voting citizens – and almost always with the same worn out scam of “working to help the community and taxpayers”.
WHY DOES THIS DECEPTION CONTINUE? (Take a look at the last rigged Presidential election for the answer!)
This attack continues” because PATRIOTS consistently reject the LEFTIST-DEMO RAT agenda for America when provided a legitimate opportunity to do so – which is precisely why Demo-Rats have so severely corrupted our elections – EVERYWHERE!
BECAUSE THEY CAN NOT WIN IN A FAIR ELECTION BASED ON OBVIOUS AND DOCUMENTED TRUTHFUL FACT!
They must lie and cheat and deceive people into supporting their corruption of the RULE OF LAW. Gaslighting is only one of many techniques these traitors to America use.
LEFTIST DEMO-RATS are criminals who clearly intend the destruction of OUR COUNTRY “by any means necessary”and likewise should be dealt with by our judicial system (also severely corrupted by the Left – RE: last presidential election for perfect example) as the traitors to America and her citizens that they have always been.
Yup, a simple and accurate explanation as to why so many long time residents of CALIFORNIA are leaving the ENTRENCHED GASLIGHTING STATE of CALIFUSION!
PUSHING A FAKE AND POTENTIALLY SERIOUS TREATMENT
Also explains why the Left continues to push experimental “fake vaccine treatments” and their draconian policies against our people. They know it is all a scam and that is called a BIG CLUE. To use an old expression: “They’ve painted themselves into a corner!”
This also illuminates the reason why those who speak the truth have been de-platformed on social media sites (and everywhere else) and silenced like a Fauci lab Beagle. The LEFT abhors the truth.
LEFTIST DEMO-RATS don’t give a rat’s ass about legal American Citizens or what they believe and desire for THEIR OWN COUNTRY, rather, they’re only frantically attempting to hold on to their stolen and corrupted power and authority to continue their Anti-America assault against OUR COUNTRY AND HER LEGAL CITIZENS who are growing more outraged by the minute. WHY? Because truth is leaking out from the aggressive and UNCONSTITUTIONAL DEMO-RAT CENSORING OF INFORMATION.
GOD BLESS AMERICA – now let’s get to work and support the efforts to hold these traitors accountable for all the ensuing negative ramifications of their continuing betrayal of America and her legal citizens!
A school in Tustin, Calif., on March 10, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Northern California
By Brad Jones January 20, 2022 Updated: January 20, 2022 biggersmallerPrint
A mother of a student has taken legal action against a school district in Salinas, Calif., over policies she claims allowed two teachers at Buena Vista Middle School to secretly brainwash her teenage daughter into identifying as bisexual, and later as transgender.
Jessica Konen blasted members of the Spreckels Union School District (SUSD) at a board meeting in mid-December, claiming the teachers, who ran a LGBTQ+ club during lunch-hour, “coached” her then sixth-grade daughter to change her gender identity and use a masculine name and pronouns at school.
Her daughter has since switched schools, returned to using her feminine birth name and gender, and seems to be happier, according to her mother—and no longer showing signs of gender dysphoria.
Harmeet Dhillon, CEO of the Center for American Liberty, which is representing Konen and her daughter, told The Epoch Times on Jan. 19 the case is important to protect parental rights.
“It’s terrible what happened to this family,” Dhillon said.
“Supreme Court precedent has made clear that parents have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing and education of their children, and their right is denied to them when schools keep secrets from parents, especially on matters as foundational as a child’s identity, name [and] pronouns,” she said.
“That’s what happened to our clients. This is a violation of the clients’ civil rights—the parent and the child. Every parent has a right to know what’s going on at school.”
Dhillon accused SUSD and Buena Vista Middle School of adopting a “parental secrecy policy,” to keep parents in the dark about certain information regarding students’ gender expression and identity.
The case, Konen v. Spreckels Union School District, was filed on Jan. 19.
In California, filing a claim under the Government Claims Act is a precursor to filing a lawsuit, so the state has a couple of months to respond to the claim “and either resolve it, or if they don’t then we can proceed with lawsuits,” Dhillon said.
Attorney Harmeet Dhillon, former vice chairwoman of the California Republican Party, speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio on July 19, 2016. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The claim alleges the policy adopted by SUSD “authorizes minor children to make mature, consequential, and potentially life-altering decisions—such as what gender to identify as, what name to be called, what pronouns to use, and what privacy facilities to use—with no notification to or input from parents.”
Teachers Lori Caldeira, Kelly Baraki and the school’s principal, Katelyn Pagaran, are named in the claim. As a minor, Konen’s daughter is referred to only as “A.G.”
“Sometimes, Ms. Caldiera and Ms. Baraki would introduce and push LGBT+ identities on students that the students resisted” and “planted the seed in A.G.’s mind that she was bisexual,” the claim states. “That idea did not originate with A.G. In fact, she did not fully understand what that term meant.”
“We suspect that what happened to Jessica and her family is just the tip of the iceberg,” Dhillon said. “We believe that there is a lot of this going on and this is something that parents should really be concerned about.”
Konen told The Epoch Times about her experience after a leaked audio recording of the teachers at a California Teachers Association (CTA) conference revealed Caldeira and Baraki encouraging other teachers to hide the nature of Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs from parents.
The CTA’s 2021 LGBTQ+ Issues Conference, “Beyond the Binary: Identity & Imagining Possibilities,” was held in Palm Springs, Calif., from Oct. 29 to Oct. 31. There, Caldeira and Baraki led a workshop called “How we run a ‘GSA’ in Conservative Communities,” at which they described the obstacles they faced in concealing the activities of LGBTQ+ clubs from parents.
At Buena Vista, the GSA club—the “Equality Club”—was renamed the “You Be You” or “UBU” club, one teacher said in the audio clip obtained by The Epoch Times.
The teachers also suggested that parents who refuse to call their child by pronouns of the child’s choosing should be arrested and charged with child abuse, according to a source who attended the conference.
In the audio clip, the teachers talk about spying on students’ online searches and activity as well as eavesdropping on their conversations to identify and recruit sixth-grade students into these LGBTQ clubs whose membership rolls are kept hidden from parents.
“We totally stalked what they were doing on Google,” one of the teachers said.
The teachers have since been suspended with pay pending the outcome of third-party investigation, according to a recent statement from SUSD.
A previous statement from Superintendent Eric Tarallo, SUSD Board President Steve McDougall, and Buena Vista Middle School Principal Kate Pagaran said the teachers were using personal leave to lead the workshop at the CTA conference and that they weren’t officially presenting on behalf of the school district.
“Many of the comments and themes stated in the article are alarming, concerning, disappointing, and do not in any way reflect the District or the Board of Education’s policies and practices,” the Nov. 19 statement reads.
However, the CTA and the California Department of Education have issued guidance to teachers about how to talk to students about sexual orientation and gender identity issues without their parents knowing about it, Dhillon said. “That’s the official policy of our California government.”
A file photo of a high school in El Segundo, Calif., on Oct. 29, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
But California is not the only state that has trampled on parental rights. It’s happened in many other states, she said. “You have governors, and other public officials saying that parents don’t have a right to control their children’s education.”
“I, as a taxpayer, certainly do not sign up for my tax dollars being used to indoctrinate otherwise healthy children with fears and questions about their identity, and certainly parents don’t sign up for that either. And so, we are standing right next to those moms, and all parents,” Dhillon said.
Celeste Fiehler, deputy director of ParentUnion.org, urged more parents to come forward and expose the actions teachers’ unions have taken to subvert parents.
“Parents have been gaslighted,” Fiehler told The Epoch Times.
Fiehler applauded Konen for having the courage to fight for her daughter and rights as a parent.
“I’m extremely proud of Jessica and all parents who are speaking up while risking everything to protect children,” she said.Brad Jones Follow Brad Jones is an award-winning journalist based in Southern California.
***********************
Howdy, LEW HERE…….
CHECK OUT the below explanation of “GASLIGHTING” and realize…..when you think about this in regards to the current COVID-19 PANDEMIC for example – the LEFTIST-DEMO RAT regime has been “gaslighting” American Patriots for a very long time from the FEDERAL, STATE and LOCAL government levels. It is a politically organized attack by unscrupulous individuals who do not think for themselves but only follow the “PARTY LINE”.
(Not unlike the current Board of Directors at the Lake Don Pedro Community Services District who in 2014 unethically rehired PETER KAMPA who was the corrupted GM in the mid 1990s who began the special interest reconfiguration of our COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT into a special benefit GROUNDWATER SUBSTITUTION FACILITY to provide an EXPENSIVE SPECIAL BENEFIT SUBSIDIZED GROUNDWATER SERVICE (in a designated drought prone area) TO PROPERTY ANNEXATIONS FRAUDULENTLY BROUGHT INTO THE DISTRICT WHICH CLEARLY VIOLATED THE STATE WATER LICENSE on where Merced River water could be legally transported and consumed! Gosh, same thing as our “national borders” being dropped to permit non stakeholders to enter, exploit and ultimately destroy EVERYTHING funded, built and intended for citizens of this country! Exact same thing but on a different level.)
Such individuals (where ever they set up their evil deceptions) continually abuse their positions of authority and power to push their LEFTIST AGENDA TO DESTROY AMERICA and disenfranchise her legally voting citizens – and almost always with the same worn out scam of “working to help the community”. This attack continues” because PATRIOTS consistently reject the LEFTIST-DEMO RAT agenda for America when provided a legitimate opportunity to do so. (Which is precisely why Demo-Rats have so severely corrupted our elections – EVERYWHERE! BECAUSE THEY CAN NOT WIN IN A FAIR ELECTION BASED ON OBVIOUS AND DOCUMENTED TRUTHFUL FACT! They must lie and cheat and deceive people into supporting their corruption of the RULE OF LAW.
Gaslighting is only one of many techniques these traitors to America use. DEMO-RATS are criminals who clearly intend the destruction of OUR COUNTRY “by any means necessary”and likewise should be dealt with by our judicial system (also severely corrupted by the Left) as the traitors to America and her citizens that they have always been. Yup, a simple and accurate explanation as to why so many long time residents of CALIFORNIA are leaving the ENTRENCHED GASLIGHTING STATE of CALIFUSION! Also explains why the Left continues to push experimental “fake vaccine treatments” and draconian policies on our people that are not even legitimate vaccines! CALLED A CLUE. This also illuminates the reason why those who speak the truth have been de-platformed on social media sites (and everywhere else) and silenced like a Fauci lab Beagle.
They don’t give a rat’s ass about legal American Citizens or what they believe and desire, rather, only holding on to their stolen and corrupted power and authority to continue their Anti-America assault against OUR COUNTRY AND HER LEGAL CITIZENS who are growing more outraged by the minute. https://www.verywellmind.com/is-someone-gaslighting-you-4147470
Treason against your own country and citizen population is ugly enough but when considered in conjunction with the global crimes against humanity (one of which was the coordinated refusal to provide one of the world’s most tested, effectively used and relied upon medications for decades which could have easily prevented untold death and needless suffering), well it seems to me the maximum penalty would certainly be appropriate. This seems an especially valid position when the responsible parties are not just regular folks on the street who may have spontaneously used some situational bad judgement, but rather, these “we are science traitors” are highly educated, trained and INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE who apparently over a rather lengthy time period, intentionally engineered this virus as a gain a function biological weapon. Then, if not bad enough already, denied creating it and pushed a potentially dangerous treatment (incorrectly termed a vaccine incidentally) which increasing evidence suggests advanced another Leftist goal of global wealth redistribution. Follow the money. Traitors and selfish, greedy people are everywhere and tend to gather in positions where their attained legitimate authority and power can be wrongfully utilized for even greater personal wealth, authority and power. Follow the money. Guess time will tell. .
White House Chief Medical Adviser on Covid-19 Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, on Feb. 11, 2021. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images) US News
New evidence has emerged that suggests that Dr. Anthony Fauci not only initiated efforts to cover up evidence pointing to a lab origin of SARS-CoV-2 but actively shaped a highly influential academic paper that excluded the possibility of a lab leak.
Fauci’s involvement with the paper wasn’t acknowledged by the authors, as it should have been under prevailing academic standards. Neither was it acknowledged by Fauci himself, who denied having communicated with the authors when asked directly while testifying before Congress last week.
The article, Proximal Origin, was co-authored by five virologists, four of whom participated in a Feb. 1, 2020, teleconference that was hastily convened by Fauci, who serves as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Jeremy Farrar, who heads the UK-based Wellcome Trust, after public reporting of a potential link between the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China and the COVID-19 outbreak.
The initial draft of Proximal Origin was completed on the same day the teleconference, which wasn’t made public, took place. Notably, at least three authors of the paper were privately telling Fauci’s teleconference group both during the call and in subsequent emails that they were 60 to 80 percent sure that COVID-19 had come out of a lab.
Until now, it wasn’t known what role, if any, Fauci played in shaping the contents of the article, which formed the primary basis for government officials and media organizations to claim the “natural origin” theory for the virus. While the contents of emails previously released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show the Proximal Origin paper clearly conflicts with the authors’ private views on the virus’ origin, it was unclear if the authors had preemptively reshaped their views to please Fauci or if Fauci himself had an active role in shaping the article.
As the head of NIAID, Fauci controls a large portion of the world’s research funds for virologists. At least three virologists involved in the drafting of Proximal Origin have seen substantial increases in funding from the agency since the paper was first published. Any interference by Fauci in the paper’s narrative would present a serious conflict of interest.
Emails Show That Fauci, Collins Exerted Influence
Newly released notes taken by House Republican staffers from emails that still remain largely redacted clearly point to Fauci having been actively engaged in shaping the article and its conclusion. The GOP lawmakers gained limited access to the emails after a months-long battle with Fauci’s parent body, the Department of Health and Human Services.
The new emails reveal that on Feb. 4, 2020, one of the article’s co-authors, virologist Edward Holmes, shared a draft of Proximal Origin with Farrar. Like Fauci, Farrar controls the disbursement of vast amounts of funding for virology research.
Holmes prefaced his email to Farrar with the note that the authors “did not mention other anomalies as this will make us look like loons.” It isn’t known what other anomalies Holmes was referring to, but his statement indicates that Proximal Origin may have omitted certain anomalies of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, suggesting that the paper may have been narrative-driven from the start.
Dr. Anthony Fauci (R), director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks while U.S. President Donald Trump (C) and Vice President Mike Pence listen during a briefing on the coronavirus pandemic, in the press briefing room of the White House on March 24, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
During Fauci’s teleconference, participants had discussed at least two anomalies specific to the virus—the virus’s furin cleavage site, which has never been observed in naturally occurring SARS coronaviruses, and the pathogen’s unusual backbone, which fails to match any known virus backbone.
Farrar almost immediately shared Holmes’s draft with Fauci and Collins via email, while excluding other participants of the teleconference. The ensuing email thread containing discussion among the three suggests that the reason for the secretiveness may have been that they were shaping the content of the paper itself, something that has never been publicly acknowledged.
It’s notable that the email thread included only the three senior members of the teleconference. Using Farrar as a conduit to communicate with the authors may have been seen by Fauci and Collins as adding a layer of deniability.
Fauci, Collins Express Concern Over ‘Serial Passage’
During a Feb. 4, 2020, email exchange among the men, Collins pointed out that Proximal Origin argued against an engineered virus but that serial passage was “still an option” in the draft. Fauci appeared to share Collins’s concerns, noting in a one-line response: “?? Serial passage in ACE2-transgenic mice.”
Serial passage is a process whereby a virus is manipulated in a lab by repeatedly passing it through human-like tissue such as genetically modified mice, which mimic human lung tissue. This is notable given that during the Feb. 1 teleconference, at least three of Proximal Origin’s authors had advised Collins and Fauci that the virus may have been manipulated in a lab through serial passage or by genetic insertion of certain features.
Then-National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins stands in Bethesda, Md., on Jan. 26, 2021. Collins stepped down in December 2021. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
One day after Fauci and Collins shared their comments, on Feb. 5, 2020, Farrar emailed Fauci and Collins stating that “[t]he team will update the draft today and I will forward immediately—they will add further comments on the glycans.”
The reference to glycans is notable as they are carbohydrate-based polymers produced by humans. The push by Fauci, Collins, and Farrar to have the paper’s authors expand on the issue of glycans appears to confirm that they were exerting direct influence on the content of Proximal Origin.
According to Rossana Segreto, a microbiologist and member of the virus origins search group DRASTIC, emphasizing the presence of glycans in SARS-CoV-2 might suggest that Fauci and his group were looking to add arguments against serial passage in the lab. A study later found that Proximal Origin’s prediction on the presence of the O-linked glycans wasn’t valid.
The newly released emails don’t reveal what additional discussions may have taken place among Fauci, Collins, and Farrar in the ensuing days. Perhaps that’s partly because Farrar had noted on another email thread addressed to Fauci’s teleconference group that scientific discussions should be taken offline.
Online Version Appears to Incorporate Fauci, Collins Suggestions
Eleven days later, on Feb. 16, 2020, Proximal Origin was published online. The paper argued aggressively for a natural origin of SARS-CoV-2.
An immediate observation from an examination of the Feb. 16 version of Proximal Origin is that “glycans,” the term that Farrar, Fauci and Collins wanted to emphasize, is cited 12 times. We don’t know to what extent glycans were discussed in the Feb. 4 draft as it remains concealed by National Institute of Health (NIH) officials.
An item of particular significance is that the Feb. 16 version omits any mention of the ACE2-transgenic mice that Fauci had initially flagged in his Feb. 4 email to Collins and Farrar. While the Feb. 16 version of Proximal Origin acknowledges that a furin cleavage site could have been generated through serial passage using animals with ACE2 receptors, the cited animals in the Feb. 16 version were ferrets—not transgenic mice.
The P4 laboratory on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on May 13, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
The authors’ use of ferrets is peculiar not only because the term “transgenic mice” was almost certainly used in the Feb. 4 version but also because it was known at the time that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was conducting serial passage experiments on coronaviruses using ACE2 transgenic mice.
Even more conspicuously, the reference to ferrets was removed entirely from a March 17 updated version of the paper. In its place, a passage was added that stated “such work [serial passage experiments with ACE2 animals] has also not previously been described,” in academic literature—despite the fact that the Wuhan Institute’s work with ACE2 transgenic mice has been extensively described in academic papers.
Published Version of Proximal Origin Was Altered
Following the online publication of Proximal Origin on Feb. 16, 2020, the article was published in the prominent science journal Nature on March 17. In addition to the changes surrounding the transgenic mice, a number of other notable edits were made to strengthen the natural origin narrative.
On March 6, 2020, the paper’s lead author, Kristian Andersen, appeared to acknowledge the inputs from Collins, Farrar, and Fauci, when he emailed the three to say, “Thank you again for your advice and leadership as we have been working through the SARS-CoV-2 ‘origins’ paper.”
Perhaps most strikingly, the most often publicly cited passage from the March 17 version of the paper, “we do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible,” doesn’t appear in the Feb. 16 version. Additionally, while the Feb. 16 version states that “genomic evidence does not support the idea that SARS-CoV-2 is a laboratory construct” the March 17 version was altered to state that “the evidence shows that SARS-CoV-2 is not a purposefully manipulated virus.”
Similar changes in language are evident in various parts of the March 17 version. For example, a section that stated “analysis provides evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct” was amended to read “analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct.”
A medical staff member gestures inside an isolation ward at Red Cross Hospital in Wuhan in China’s Hubei Province on March 10, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
The March 17 version also omits an entire section from the Feb. 16 version that centered around an amino acid called phenylalanine. According to Segreto, a similarly situated amino acid in the original SARS virus had “mutated into phenylalanine as result of cell passage in human airway epithelium.” Segreto surmises that the Proximal Origin authors might have deleted this section so as not to highlight that the phenylalanine in SARS-CoV-2 might have resulted from serial passage in a lab.
Segreto’s analysis is backed up by the fact that another section in the Feb. 16 version which states that “experiments with [the original] SARS-CoV have shown that engineering such a site at the S1/S2 junction enhances cell–cell fusion,” was reworded in the March 17 version to leave out the word “engineering.” Indeed, while the Feb. 16 version merely downplayed the possibility of the virus having been engineered in a lab, in the March 17 version, the word “engineered” was expunged from the paper altogether.
Another sentence omitted from the March 17 version noted that “[i]nterestingly, 200 residents of Wuhan did not show coronavirus seroreactivity.” Had the sentence remained, it would have suggested that, unlike other regions in China, no SARS-related viruses were circulating in Wuhan in the years leading up to the pandemic. That makes natural spillover less likely. The director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Shi Zhengli, herself admitted that she never expected a SARS-related virus to emerge in Wuhan. When viruses emerged naturally in the past, they emerged in southern China.
Shi’s credibility already was coming under fire for failing to disclose that she had the closest known relative of SARS-CoV-2 in her possession for seven years—a point noted early on by Segreto. Additionally, the Wuhan Institute took its entire database of viral sequences offline on Sept. 12, 2019. Despite the Wuhan Institute’s documented deletion and concealment of data, Proximal Origin’s central argument is that SARS-CoV-2 had to be natural since its backbone didn’t match any known backbones.
However, even before the March 17 version was published, Segreto had stated publicly that Proximal Origin’s central backbone argument was inherently flawed, precisely because there was no way of knowing whether the Chinese lab had published the relevant viral sequences.
Fauci, Collins, Farrar Roles Improperly Concealed
The email exchange among Fauci, Farrar, and Collins presents clear evidence that the three men took an active role in shaping the narrative of Proximal Origin. Indeed, a careful comparison of the Feb. 16 and March 17 versions show that the changes made fail to reflect any fundamental change in scientific analysis.
Instead, the authors employed linguistic changes and wholesale deletions that appear to have been designed to reinforce the natural origin narrative.
Close scrutiny of the email discussions by the three scientists also suggests that there was no legal justification for redacting any of the newly released information in the first place.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, talks to members of the press prior to an event at the State Dining Room of the White House on Jan. 21, 2021. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Science journals require that contributions to scientific papers need to be acknowledged. According to Nature’s publishing guidelines, “[c]ontributors who do not meet all criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgements section.” The newly revealed sections of the still-redacted emails appear to confirm that Fauci, Farrar, and Collins met the criteria for acknowledgement but their names have never appeared on any published version of Proximal Origin, suggesting that the three didn’t want their involvement in the paper’s creation to be known.
Collins Asked Fauci ‘to Help Put Down’ Fox News Story
A final email released by the House Republicans shows that Collins wrote Fauci several months later on April 16, 2020, telling him that he had hoped that Proximal Origin would have “settled” the origin debate, but it apparently hadn’t since Bret Baier of Fox News was reporting that sources were confident the virus had come out of a lab.
Collins asked Fauci whether the NIH could do something “to help put down this very destructive conspiracy” that seemed to be “growing momentum.” Collins also suggested that he and Fauci ask the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to weigh in. As was revealed in previous emails released under FOIA, Fauci’s group had pushed NASEM in early Feb. 2020 to promote the natural origin narrative.
Fauci told Collins that the lab leak theory was a “shiny object” that would go away in time. However, the next day, Fauci took responsive action when he categorically dismissed the possibility of a lab origin of COVID-19 during on April 17, 2020, White House press conference. In doing so, Fauci cited the Proximal Origin paper as corroboration of his claims. Notably, Fauci feigned independence, telling reporters that he couldn’t recall the names of the authors. Unbeknownst to reporters and the public at the time, four out of the five authors had participated in Fauci’s Feb. 1, 2020, teleconference.
Now, we know that Fauci had involvement in shaping the very article that he cited.
Fauci’s intervention at the April 17 White House briefing was effective, since media interest in the lab leak theory quickly waned. It didn’t resurface until May 2021, when former New York Times science writer Nicholas Wade published an article discussing the likelihood of a lab leak. Wade noted that “[a] virologist keen to continue his career would be very attentive to Fauci’s and Farrar’s wishes.”
Notably, Segreto had raised a similar concern after Proximal Origin was first published in February 2020, asking whether certain virologists were scared that if the truth came out, their research activities would be curtailed.Jeff Carlson Follow Jeff Carlson co-hosts the show Truth Over News on Epoch TV. He is a CFA-registered Charterholder and worked for 20 years as an analyst and portfolio manager in the high-yield bond market. He also runs the website TheMarketsWork.com and can be followed on Twitter @themarketswork. Hans Mahncke Follow Hans Mahncke co-hosts the show Truth Over News on Epoch TV. He holds LL.B., LL.M. and Ph.D. degrees in law. He is the author of numerous law books and his research has been published in a range of international journals. Hans can be followed on Twitter @hansmahncke.
Why not express what I (and millions of others) feel and believe about this global embarrassment while there is still some FREEDOM left in America under this LEFT APPOINTED DEMENTED fraud for a president!
(Now back to my regularly scheduled frustration with an ATV carburetor! lol)
