No, Dr. Fauci did not Commit a Scientific Integrity Violation
Select Subcommittee on Coronavirus Continues to Amplify Conspiracy Theory
Yesterday, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic held a hearing entitled “Academic Malpractice: Examining the Relationship Between Scientific Journals, the Government, and Peer Review.” The goal of the hearing was apparently to highlight a conspiracy theory that scientific journals are colluding with federal government officials to produce shoddy research that advances a particular political agenda. A similar tactic has been used by Representative Jim Jordan to harass scientists studying the spread of online disinformation and how to combat it.
Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of Science, served as the only witness. Editor-in-chiefs for Nature and The Lancet both declined to participate in the hearing. I don’t blame them because as one might expect, the hearing was based entirely on an unfounded conspiracy theory.
O. Just a quick side note. This hearing was called for by Chairman of the subcommittee Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) who SciLight recently covered given that he co-sponsored a bill to ban DEI in medical schools.
Why was this hearing held?
Apparently, we’re still debating the origins of COVID-19. If you don’t know what’s going on here, let me explain.
There is a hypothesis that the COVID-19 virus was leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China - the Wuhan Institute of Virology. This initial hypothesis on the origin of COVID-19 was quickly politicized to defend former president Trump’s dismal COVID-19 strategy. In fact, a republican strategy memo discovered by Politico in April 2020 instructed the GOP to blame COVID-19 on China. “Coronavirus was a Chinese hit-and-run followed by a cover-up that cost thousands of lives,” read part of the memo.
The lab leak theory was mentioned in a White House press briefing when a Newsmax reporter asked President Trump if he was aware that grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) were being distributed to the Wuhan Insititute of Virology. “We will end that grant very quickly,” Trump responded. The NIH grant funding in question was awarded to the EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit research organization that develops science-based solutions to prevent pandemics and promote conservation. The EcoHealth Alliance had made a subaward to the Wuhan Insitute of Virology. The EcoHealth’s alliance funding was pulled by the Trump administration - the funding was reinstated in 2023.
An NIH Cover up?
The House Subcommittee’s debates have recently focused on the notion that high-ranking medical science officials Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Francis Collins, former director of NIH, coerced researchers to cover up the lab leak theory. Specifically, some members of the select subcommittee accuse Fauci and Collins of coercing scientists who published the paper “The proximal origins of Sars-Cov-2” - a scientific paper that weighed the evidence for two major hypotheses of COVID-19’s origin, zoonotic (transmission to humans from another animal) or a leak from a lab in Wuhan. The paper concluded that a leak from a lab wasn’t plausible.
The basis of the conspiracy theory that ties Fauci and Collins to collusion dates back to a teleconference held on February 1st, 2020. The teleconference was attended by scientists across the world, including several of the authors of the proximal origin paper. The teleconference also was attended by Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins. The meeting was held to discuss the lab leak theory and its probability of being true. Some Republican members of the meeting contest that Dr. Fauci influenced the scientists on the call and that he prompted the development of the proximal origins paper with a predetermined finding that the lab leak theory was not probable. But the scientists that attended the teleconference have stated that Fauci and Collins rarely spoke in the teleconference.
Why would Fauci and Collins coerce these scientists to publish a paper with a predetermined finding? Because of the above-mentioned NIH grant to the EcoHealth alliance and their subaward to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Some Republican members of the committee believe that Fauci and Collins knew that they could be implicated if a lab leak were exposed, since NIH had funded the EcoHealth Alliance who subcontracted with the Wuhan Institute of Virology - the lab in Wuhan, China at the center of the lab leak theory. So, to ensure that they covered their asses, Fauci and Collins coerced these scientists to publish a paper in Nature Medicine that would dismiss the lab leak hypothesis.
This is the conspiracy theory that the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic has used your taxpayer dollars to thoroughly investigate. The probe into federal funded research has spanned more than a half million pages of documents, more than a dozen transcribed interviews, and multiple hearings according to ranking member Raul Ruiz (D-CA).
The subcommittee has not provided any evidence that a cover up was orchestrated by Fauci and Collins. Rather, in a common tactic used to harass scientists, the subcommittee issued subpoenas for every single professional and personal communication from the scientists of the proximal origins paper, and much of the correspondence collected has been taken out of context and used as “evidence” of a cover up. In a hearing prior to the one held today, one of the authors of the proximal origin paper, Kristian Andersen, said “Misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories around the paper have resulted in significant harassment.” He also noted that he had received death threats.
Collusion with Scientific Journals
Yesterday’s hearing continued to investigate the unproven accusations that high-level government officials were part of an elaborate coercive scheme to cover up the true origins of COVID-19. The subject of the subcommittee’s hearing yesterday focused on collusion between scientific journals and government officials. The lack of attendance from two of the editor-in-chiefs is likely quite telling of their thoughts on yesterday’s hearing.
On April 14th, Chairman of the subcommittee, Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), said in a press release that “The Select Subcommittee recently obtained evidence that indicates top scientific journals Science, Nature, and The Lancet were in communication with federal government officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, during the pandemic.” The opening statement of ranking member of the Select Subcommittee, Raul Ruiz (D-CA), pushed back on this accusation, “But despite the majority’s claims, in the press release announcing this hearing, the Select Subcommittee has not uncovered any evidence that directly implicates Drs. Fauci and Collins in a cover up of the pandemic’s origin or collusion with scientific journals to suppress the lab leak hypothesis.”
Indeed, no evidence presented in the hearing implicated Drs. Fauci or Collins in an elaborate scheme to influence scientific journals to suppress scientific research on the lab leak hypothesis. In Dr. Thorp’s testimony, he admits that he exchanged emails with Drs. Fauci and Collins but notes that they were merely friendly. He notes that he has written editorials that were critical of both government leaders. Lastly, Dr. Thorp notes in his testimony that two papers published in Science on the origins of COVID-19 were neither prompted or involved government officials in their review or editing. Both papers support, but do not conclusively prove, a natural origin of Sars-CoV-2.
There is no lapse of scientific integrity here
In his opening statement, Chairman Wenstrup said that the subcommittee has exposed a lack of scientific integrity in the proximal origins paper. But there’s no evidence of a loss of scientific integrity.
Government officials, especially those with scientific backgrounds, speaking with editors in journals is not evidence of collusion. As Dr. Thorp’s testimony attest, some emails are just friendly exchanges. Federal scientists also will likely exchange emails with journal editors if they are submitting or revising a paper. There are so many different reasons why a government official might have an email exchange with a journal editor. If an email exists showing Dr. Fauci or Dr. Collins suppressed research for political purposes, this would be a violation of scientific integrity. It is my understanding that there is no email nor any other kind of evidence that provides proof that these high-level government officials suppressed research.
Without evidence of an email that directly implicates government officials and journal editors in a cover up scheme, congressional members shouldn’t even be stating that is a possibility. It’s misinformation that ultimately can lead to public distrust in science.