A top advisor to former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci is facing further scrutiny for allegedly using his personal Gmail account to discuss covid-19 origins.
Dr. David Morens appears to have used his Gmail account to discuss the origins of covid-19 with EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak and Boston University Professor Gerald Keusch, a former National Institutes of Health employee. The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic revealed the emails in a letter to Keusch on Thursday after receiving them from a whistleblower. The letter does not include the text of the emails.
Covid Subcommittee chairman Brad Wenstrup (R., Ohio.) is demanding Keusch turn over documents and communications between Daszak, Morens, and Boston University faculty surrounding the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the facility at the heart of the lab-leak covid origin theory. National Review has reached out to Keusch for comment on the letter.
Fauci led the scientific establishment’s opposition to lab-leak theory and helped orchestrate a paper in Nature Medicine discrediting the lab-leak hypothesis at the beginning of the pandemic. Assessments by the FBI and Department of Energy have concluded covid-19 mostly likely came from the Wuhan lab. Fauci testified before the subcommittee earlier this year and conceded the lab leak was not a conspiracy theory years after spearheading the public campaign against it.
Morens is already facing scrutiny for emails previously released by the subcommittee where he appeared to suggest in September 2021 using Gmail to dodge public records requests under the Freedom of Information Act.
“I try to always communicate on gmail because my NIH email is FOIA’d constantly,” Morens wrote to Daszak and other colleagues.
“Don’t worry, just send to any of my addresses and I will delete anything I don’t want to see in the New York Times,” Morens added.
He testified behind closed-doors in January and denied attempting to delete Covid-19 records, according to the subcommittee. National Review reached out to the NIAID for comment on the Morens situation.
EcoHealth Alliance responded to the subcommittee’s letter by releasing a batch of emails between Daszak and Morens. The group objected to the characterization of the emails as being part of a potential coverup, however the tranche of emails does not feature those disclosed by the subcommittee.
One of the emails released by EcoHealth shows Daszak telling Morens in April 2020 “we’ll communicate with you via gmail from now on” to discuss a bat coronavirus research grant that was being put on hold by the Trump administration. Daszak disparaged then-President Trump and accused him of emboldening extremists to the detriment of U.S. national security.
EcoHealth previously received government funding to conduct bat coronavirus research in Wuhan, China, the location where Covid-19 was first discovered. The nonprofit organization says its mission is to fight pandemics and protect wildlife.
“I understand exactly what you’re saying in your email, I agree, and we’ll follow this line exactly,” Daszak added. National Review has reached out to EcoHealth Alliance for further comment.
“Contrary to the news reports, they show clearly that EcoHealth Alliance was appropriately communicating with senior staff at the NIH, or who formerly worked at NIH, to try to identify ways to reinstate a grant that had been terminated unexpectedly and arbitrarily, then suspended with onerous conditions,” EcoHealth said in its press release announcing the email disclosure.
Daszak described Morens as a “mentor” when he testified earlier this year, according to the subcommittee. Morens similarly described Daszak as a close friend.
The subcommittee is in the process of securing Morens’ public testimony and Daszak is scheduled to testify publicly next month.