{"id":420,"date":"2026-08-20T20:38:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T20:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanhousingtransition.com\/?p=420"},"modified":"2026-08-20T20:38:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T20:38:24","slug":"scientist-behind-wuhan-bat-research-thanked-fauci-aide-for-helping-shut-down-lab-leak-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanhousingtransition.com\/?p=420","title":{"rendered":"Scientist Behind Wuhan Bat Research Thanked Fauci Aide for Helping Shut Down Lab-Leak Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span>Peter Daszak, who as president of EcoHealth Alliance directed government funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, thanked a former Fauci aide in newly-released emails for helping shut down public speculation over the possibility that Covid-19 emerged from a lab.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanhousingtransition.com\/?p=418\">U.K. Government Issues Guidance Warning Asylum Seekers Not to Rape or Perform Female Genital Mutilation<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>David Morens, <\/span><span>a former senior adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to hiding federal records from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Investigators obtained emails between Daszak and Morens in which Daszak mentioned sending bottles of wine to Morens and thanked him for his \u201cbehind the scenes shenanigans.\u201d The U.S.\u00a0<\/span><span>Attorney\u2019s Office for the District of Maryland said that Morens and his co-conspirators had pledged to help \u201ccounter the narrative that Covid-19 leaked from a lab\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>EcoHealth, a New York-based non-governmental organization, was awarded millions of dollars in grants from the NIH, including funds that were subgranted to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China to study bat coronaviruses. The lab-leak theory of Covid\u2019s origins, which Dr. Anthony Fauci and other federal officials tried to publicly dismiss, suggests the virus emerged from the Wuhan institute.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Morens, in messages on his private Gmail account, promised to help Daszak win back grant funding for his bat coronavirus experiments in China. The experiments were suspended in April 2020 in response to fears that the controversial research could have caused the pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Emails show Morens agreeing to write a \u201cscientific commentary\u201d in June 2020 underlining the importance of Daszak\u2019s work, though he said he would keep the EcoHealth Alliance president\u2019s name out of the article to mislead readers into believing it was independent. Prosecutors say Morens and Daszak <\/span><span>had \u201cconcealed their communications\u201d so they could publish papers and articles without directly mentioning Daszak, \u201cto generate the appearance of disinterested scientific consensus.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Morens told Daszak that he was working \u201cbehind the scenes\u201d to help him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cMy boxing gloves are on and laced up,\u201d he said in one message.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In another, he added: \u201cLet\u2019s win this anti-science battle, get you refunded\u2026 then settle the scores and kick some ass.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In response, Daszak apparently sent two bottles of The Prisoner Red Napa Valley wine to Morens in the weeks that followed, alongside a note that said, \u201cThis is the first of what I hope will be a continued series of expressions of gratitude for your advice, support and behind the scenes shenanigans in my battle against your bosses boss, his boss and the ultimate boss on the hill (referring to Donald Trump).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanhousingtransition.com\/?p=416\">FBI Raids Eric Swalwell\u2019s Home, Seizes Electronics in Connection with Sexual Assault Investigation<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>Morens later published an article, \u201cThe Origin of Covid-19 and why it matters,\u201d arguing that Covid-19 was born out of \u201cnatural\u201d spillover from animals. He suggested Daszak\u2019s research is actually important to preventing another pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The federal government formally debarred EcoHealth Alliance and Daszak last year, prohibiting them from receiving taxpayer funding for five years after a months long investigation found\u00a0<\/span><span>taxpayer money had been used to fund the group\u2019s gain-of-function research.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Throughout several of the emails, Morens laments the possibility of FOIA requests revealing his private communications, and brags about his ability to obscure his communications.<\/p>\n<p><span>In June 2020, he said FOIA requests were \u201cdreadful and paranoia inducing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>We are all smart enough to know to never have smoking guns, and if we did we wouldn\u2019t put them in emails, and if we found them we\u2019d delete them,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>He said that he could\u00a0<span>\u201cmake emails disappear after I am FOIA\u2019d.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He agreed to a deal with federal prosecutors this week that would see him plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit offenses or to defraud the United States. The charge carries up to five years in prison.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Morens\u2019s attorney, Tim Belevetz, told several media outlets, <\/span><span>\u201cBy pleading guilty today, Dr. Morens has taken responsibility for what he did and will continue to do so.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanhousingtransition.com\/?p=414\">What the Florida Primary Results Say About Antisemitism in the GOP<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Peter Daszak, who as president of EcoHealth Alliance directed government funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, thanked former Fauci aide David Morens in newly-released emails for helping shut down public speculation over the possibility that Covid-19 emerged from a lab.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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