WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sent letters to several agencies requesting additional information on their knowledge and involvement regarding the DEFUSE project, a 2018 grant proposal led by EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The DEFUSE project was submitted to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under the PREventing Emerging Pathogenic Threats (PREEMPT) program and proposed to insert a furin cleavage site into a coronavirus to create a novel chimeric virus that would have been shockingly similar to the COVID-19 virus. Recently, Dr. Paul obtained documents indicating at least fifteen agencies participated in a DARPA hosted “PREEMPT Proposers Day” where potential applicants presented proposals to agency representatives. During this event Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance pitched the DEFUSE project which sought federal funds to “manipulate known viruses with spike proteins of novel viral strains.” The letter also outlines that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Rocky Laboratory was listed as a partner in the DEFUSE proposal alongside the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“At least 15 federal agencies knew from the beginning of the pandemic that EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology were seeking federal funding in 2018 to create a virus genetically very similar if not identical to COVID-19,” said Ranking Member Paul. “Disturbingly, not one of these 15 agencies spoke up to warn us that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been pitching this research.”
Despite at least fifteen federal agencies having knowledge of the DEFUSE project in 2018, its existence was not revealed to the public until 2021 and the involvement of NIH Rocky Mountain Lab in the initial proposal has never been previously disclosed. Dr. Paul expressed that the failure of these agencies to disclose their awareness of the risky research proposed in the DEFUSE project raises serious concerns. As a result, Dr. Paul requested the fifteen federal agencies to provide all documents, records, and communications related to the PREEMPT Proposers Day and DEFUSE project.
You can read each letter Dr. Paul sent below and his newest op-ed for Fox News HERE.
- Read Dr. Paul’s letter to the Director of the National Institutes of Health HERE.
- Read Dr. Paul’s letter to the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases HERE.
- Read Dr. Paul’s letter to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services HERE.
- Read Dr. Paul’s letter to the Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency HERE.
- Read Dr. Paul’s letter to the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development HERE.
- Read Dr. Paul’s letter to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture HERE.
- Read Dr. Paul’s letter to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security HERE.
- Read Dr. Paul’s letter to the Secretary of the Navy HERE.
- Read Dr. Paul’s letter to the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention HERE.
- Read Dr. Paul’s letter to the Secretary of the Army HERE.
- Read Dr. Paul’s letter to the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response HERE.
- Read Dr. Paul’s letter to the Commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases HERE.
- Read Dr. Paul’s letter to the Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture HERE.
- Read Dr. Paul’s letter to the Director of the Military Operational Medicine Research Program HERE.
- Read Dr. Paul’s letter to the Director of the Defense Health Agency HERE.
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