Dr Peter Hotez is a prominent scientist who has been very vocal against a congressional investigation into gain-of-function research. He also serves on The Lancet COVID-19 Commission, a panel of experts working to scrutinize the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. He is also the dean of the Baylor College of Medicine National School of Tropical Medicine.
It is perhaps surprising that Hotez himself is now the subject of an investigation by Congressional investigators.
The Defender article details how Dr Peter Hotez helped fund Wuhan Institute of Virology gain-of-function work. That fact has been flagged by congressional investigators.
The project was helmed by Zhengli Shi, a senior scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, also known as “the Bat Lady”.
As part of his 6.1 million NIH grant, Hotez subcontracted funding for research on combined or “chimeric” coronaviruses. The scientific paper shows. Hotez’s grant underwrote two of Shi’s collaborators on the project.
A prior study of one of the coronaviruses that comprised the chimera, WIV1, found it to be “poised for human emergence.” Another prior paper on the other coronavirus, SHC014, stated that its future study in lab-generated viruses may be “too risky to pursue.”
“The construction and threat-characterization of rWIV1-SHC014 was — unequivocally — gain-of-function research,” said Richard Ebright, Rutgers Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry at Rutgers University.
(From 2014 to late 2017 the NIH had imposed a moratorium on U.S. funding for certain studies with dangerous viruses.)
“It is a conflict of interest that, to my knowledge, has not previously been disclosed to The Lancet Commission” Ebright also stated.
The Lancet Commission is the body investigating the Origins of Covid. It is the same commission The Defender article reported Hotez as being a vocal member in not supporting the lab leak theory. Yet he never revealed his conflict of interest.
Editors Note: So, it appears one of the greatest protagonists against the lab leak theory in the media and behind the scenes has now been exposed. Dr Peter Hotez funded the gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. No wonder he was so against an investigation into the Wuhan Lab. It’s all coming out into the open.
Source: The Defender article
Photo:Baylor College of Medicine National School of Tropical Medicine Dean Peter Hotez. Image credit: U.S. Mission in Geneva
