Documents recently released by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) reveal that the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) contacted a coronavirus expert connected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) years before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, chaired by Paul, found that the CIA and the Office of the Director for National Intelligence (ODNI) contacted Dr. Ralph Baric in 2015 to discuss a “possible project” related to [c]oronavirus evolution and possible natural human adaptation.” Nearly two months later, Baric and WIV’s Dr. Zhengli Shi published a paper on bat coronaviruses. The project was funded with taxpayer dollars under grants linked to gain-of-function research.
In 2018, the two researchers were “again listed as collaborators on EcoHealth Alliance’s DEFUSE proposal to DARPA, which sought to insert a furin cleavage site into a coronavirus, the same feature that later appeared in SARS-CoV-2,” Paul explained in a statement on X.
Two years later, COVID-19 spread from Wuhan, China, the same location listed in the research proposal and spread globally. Paul’s committee noted that the “same circle of scientists who had proposed risky gain-of-function experiments were suddenly advising the U.S. government on how to respond.”
Baric later shared with officials that an accidental lab leak was possible, although the hypothesis was branded as a conspiracy theory and condemned by health leaders.
One email shared by Paul appears to have been sent to Baric by an individual whose name is redacted. It says the individual “would like to get a clearer picture” of “Coronavirus evolution and possible natural human adaptation.”
