House Republicans are investigating emails sent to personal accounts between a very sensible official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a very sensible epidemiologist at Boston University following a whistleblower’s testimony about an alleged cover-up of the origins of COVID-19.
The Special Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic alerted through a whistleblower close to the case of email communications in 2020 between David Morens, the top adviser to then-NIAID Director Anthony Fauci, and Gerald Keusch, an epidemiologist and associate director of the National Institute on Emerging Infections. Boston University Disease Labs.
The subcommittee began investigating Morens last June after discovering that Morens had deliberately used his non-public Gmail account to conduct official NIH business in response to requests for classified information under the Freedom of Information Act. Morens also told his colleagues that he would “delete everything he didn’t need. “see in the New York Times” of his government account.
When Morens spoke to the subcommittee in a transcribed interview in January, Morens denied removing any information related to COVID origins from his government account and sending federal records to his private account at FOIA requests.
The emails between Keusch and Morens also included Peter Daszak, president of the virus studies organization EcoHealth Alliance, whom Morens told the subcommittee was a “close friend. “
The subcommittee obtained timestamps and topic lines for 4 emails between Morens, Keusch, and Daszak related to an NIH-funded EcoHealth task titled “Understanding the Risk of Coronavirus Emergence in Bats. “
Two of Morens’ emails to Daszak and Keusch, sent on April 26, 2020, request acknowledgment and lay out “necessary actions” related to the contentious grant project. Another email, sent through Morens on July 13, 2020, has the subject line “China, origin of SARS-CoV2, animal reservoir, WHO mission. “
The fourth email, sent through Morens to the two researchers on Feb. 20, 2022, states in the subject line that the NIH program director overseeing the project, Erik Stemmy, “can no longer talk to [Daszak]” about the bat coronavirus. . project, which was later discontinued.
The subcommittee’s chairman, Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), wrote in a letter to Keusch that the panel is unclear “the extent of [its] communication with Dr. Morens or others within the federal government. “
Keusch, an expert at Columbia College and Harvard Medical School in the 1960s, began his career as part of an NIH foreign career progression program in Southeast Asia. From 1998 to 2003, Keusch served as director of the John E. Fogarty of the NIH, overseeing foreign medical and behavioral research. In 2003, Keusch left public service to enroll in Boston University’s School of Public Health.
Keusch and Daszak, along with other researchers, jointly published five papers related to the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and the public fitness classes that can be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratories, or NEIDL, does not list Keusch as a professor or associate leader, however, the Boston University School of Medicine board lists Keusch as a professor emeritus, designating a semi-retired position in academia.
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The subcommittee will most likely ask Daszak about email exchanges between him, Keusch and Morens when Daszak testifies at a public hearing before the subcommittee on May 1.
The Washington Examiner Boston University for comment. EcoHealth Alliance declined to comment.