Racket News

Yesterday, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee voted along party lines to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress, after the former NIAID head invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination rather than answer questions. Predictably, the press response was to dismiss the vote as a vengeful partisan “stunt” and “ruthless persecution,” with no point other than to “punish” a figure once celebrated for leading America’s Covid-19 response.

The investigation of Fauci is no stunt, though. It’s an effort to use Congressional oversight power to punch through a six-year omerta binding duplicitious health officials, mostly located in the United States and in China. The effort to describe the investigation as partisan persecution is part of the same ongoing Covid coverup. Thousands of pages of Fauci’s diaries and other “investigative documents” released last week make clear that figures like Fauci are still hiding what they know. “The infections spread among people weeks before the Chinese reported that they were dealing with a new infection,” Fauci wrote in a diary entry on January 26th, 2020, adding: “Early on, the Chinese were saying that there is no human to human transmission and all the original 27 cases were from the market. Now we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier.”

Fauci knew the wet market story was a lie and yet was still promoting the theory months later in story after story after story, while simultaneously denouncing any questions about a possible lab accident as conspiracy theory.

Why do it? The motive almost certainly had to be deflecting attention from the Wuhan Institute for Virology, where multiple branches of the U.S. government and even Fauci’s own NIAID had funded questionable research. If Fauci’s diaries were damning, the emails released last week involving the Wuhan Institute were worse, and spoke much more to possible causes of the pandemic.

On September 9th, 2021, The Intercept published an exposé about a $3.1 million NIH-funded grant from 2014 titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence,” along with a report on the grant’s progress and other materials. The grant went to the since-debarred EcoHealth alliance and its former president, Peter Daszak, while China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology was a sub-awardee. The relevant documentation, only released after The Intercept sued the NIH, showed that researchers infected genetically engineered mice with chimeric bat viruses, in some cases producing increased pathogenicity in the process — gain of function, seemingly.

Earlier that year, on May 11th, Fauci testified that the NIH “has not ever, and does not now” fund gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute. Senator Rand Paul confronted Fauci about the claim months later, on July 20th, 2021, in an exchange that was derided — even by The Intercept — as a “chilling” “attack,” replete with “false” and “conspiratorial” claims. The documents released by the Intercept appeared to change some minds in the science community. When computational virologist Jesse Bloom of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center read the text of the 2014 grant, he sent Daszak a letter asking for data about “coronavirus sequences that were collected in China,” to “better understand the evolution of SARS-COV-2.”

Bloom by then already demonstrated a willingness to pose uncomfortable questions about Covid’s origins. In June of that year, he reported uncovering a “set of SARS-COV-2 sequences” from 34 samples that apparently had been deleted from the NIH database. He posted his findings online, saying they suggested “SARSCoV2 was circulating in Wuhan before the December outbreak at the Huanan Seafood Market,” and also wrote a much-discussed paper on the subject.

The day after receiving Bloom’s email, on September 8th, Daszak wrote to Wuhan Institute virologist Dr. Shi Zhengli, popularly known as the “Bat Lady,” and complained about an “annoying request from Jesse Bloom,” a “geneticist/phylogeny person” who “recently caused trouble” by highlighting “partial genomes of SARS-CoV-2 that were deleted.” He went on to say that although he’d been “fighting this,” there were journalists who “took the NIH to court and a judge forced them to release our grant proposals.” Bloom was therefore able to read the original proposal and see Daszak had promised to release his data “no later than six months after the receipt of final sequencing data.” Now, he had the temerity to ask for it.

Daszak told Shi he believed Bloom was the “kind of person” who would write to her directly and ask for the data. He then asked Shi to do something extraordinary. “Please do NOT share agree to this request!” Daszak wrote. “If [Bloom] asks for this data from the NIH grant work, tell him that I am the Principal Investigator and he needs to ask permission from me.” He added, incredibly:

I will respond to him sometime in the next few days and explain to him that all of the bat SARSr-CoV sequences are now uploaded onto Genbank. He will probably write back and ask for the raw data. I will then ignore his requests.

“I’ll do what you suggest if I receive the email from Jesse Bloom,” Shi answered. Then, in the middle of an email in which she is planning to be non-transparent with a scientific partner, she wrote that “[Bloom] is obsessive of the conspiracy that China is not transparent regarding the origin of COVID-19. I believe he is a brilliant scientist but don’t understand why he stands with the conspiracy makers”:

This exchange was highlighted last week by an India-based researcher who goes by the name The Seeker, one of a handful of independent analysts who did a lot of the work journalists like me should have done after the outbreak. He’s known for uncovering key background like a 2013 Chinese medical paper called “The Analysis of 6 Patients with Severe Pneumonia Caused by Unknown Viruses,” which described Chinese patients infected with an unknown disease in a mine in the Mojiang province. Time and again, the Seeker and scattered researchers from a group called DRASTIC uncovered documents, contradictions, and anomalies that forced officials to release data or issue P.R. statements that increased public awareness about the virus and its origins.

“Six years on,” the Seeker said this week, “if you set aside the FOIA and the Senate/Congressional releases, almost every other load-bearing step in this story traces back to DRASTIC and the people working alongside or adjacent to it.” He concedes “we certainly got some things wrong,” but the persistent questioning from people like himself and Viral authors Alina Chan and Matt Ridley kept the doors to inquiry open whenever health officials and their press cheerleaders tried to shut it.

Ridley agrees on this point, noting, “the running was made by citizen-scientists, mostly amateur, mostly self-funded. People like Seeker, Gilles [Demaneuf], Yuri [Deigin], Francisco de Asis, [Charles] Rixey, Billy Bostickson. And the scientists who did contribute were maverick, junior or freelancing mostly: Alina [Chan], Monali Rohalkar, Rossana [Segreto], Dr. Richard Ebright, [Bryce] Nickels.” He added, “Where the fuck were the professional journalists, scientists, spies, politicians? I mean, for an ambitious journalist or scientist this was the chance of the lifetime, surely?”

Apparently not. The pattern last week was typical. While Western media focused on Fauci’s decision to plead the Fifth and covered it as a partisan “witch hunt,” the Seeker and other independents focused on new email exchanges. As he put it, the one above showed “Daszak, on record, coordinating with WIV to block independent scientific review” and “subvert the data-sharing requirements of the grant.” Not one U.S. or European news outlet has covered the exchange.

After six years, there’s now an entire alternative history of Covid to look back on, mostly pointing in one direction. Chinese scientists collected thousands of samples from bats in years prior to 2020 and specifically looked for viruses that bind well to human receptors. As Ridley put it, they also engaged in precisely the right kind of experiment, on precisely the right strain of virus, at precisely the right time, in precisely the right city, and in precisely the wrong biosafety conditions. It’s a damning circumstantial case, but to prove it, someone would have to establish that one of the samples they collected was the progenitor virus to SARS-CoV-2.

Without the data, it will probably never be settled. However, we can certainly answer the question of whether or not the Wuhan Institute and their American partners would cover up important data about viruses. A long list of under-reported incidents already showed they would do it and have done it, while the rest of the documents released last week leave no doubt:

Subscribe now

Matt Bivens and I will be doing a livestream today at 3:00 PM ET on a variety of issues related to Covid origins, the recent hearings with Dr. Anthony Fauci, recently released documents about the Wuhan Institute, and other recent developments in the world of medicine, including AI-generated viruses. Please check this space in about an hour for an article about the Wuhan documents, and join us for the stream at 3:00 PM ET at:

Substack

Rumble

YouTube

As well as @mtaibbi. See you then.

Link Here: How to Listen to subscriber-only audio in your podcast app

Automated transcripts can be found on the web browser or app version below the byline.

Share the Free Episodes of Get Lit:

Watch Get Lit on YouTube below:

From CBS News:

The Senate Homeland Security Committee voted Thursday to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress over his refusal to answer questions during testimony before the committee last week, arguing that he inappropriately invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

“Holding a witness in contempt is a serious thing, and it should be rare,” Sen. Rand Paul, the committee chairman, said as the panel gathered Thursday. “But the contempt power exists for precisely this circumstance.”

The contempt resolution described how Fauci would be “proceeded against in the manner and form provided by law,” pursuant to two statutes (2 U.S.C. 192 and 2 U.S.C. 194), for refusal to “answer questions pertinent to the subject under inquiry.”

Paul indicated that if the committee voted as it did, he’d immediately refer the matter to the Department of Justice, which is not obligated to prosecute. The DOJ told the Washington Post it “seriously reviews all congressional referrals.” Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal broke another story last night:

A Senate panel investigating Dr. Anthony Fauci has obtained a copy of the doctor’s iPhone, potentially securing even more records related to the doctor’s actions during the Covid-19 pandemic. The copy of the phone was transferred by the Department of Health and Human Services to the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is chaired by Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.).

This revelation comes just days after copies of Fauci’s journals were publicly released following their transfer from HHS to Congress. Two Republican senators, Johnson and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have increased pressure on Fauci in recent days to answer questions related to pandemic health measures and the origins of Covid-19.

Data from Fauci’s phone is a good bet add to public understanding both of Covid’s origins and the official response to the pandemic. As noted above, Paul already released Fauci’s diaries, in addition to a less-covered batch of “investigation records” posted last Tuesday. Racket has two stories in the works about the new materials, and I’m also going to do a livestream with Dr. Matt Bivens tomorrow summarizing the evidence for and against a lab leak, as the ongoing mystery as to Covid’s origins remains the most important story. Bivens and I will go through individual “investigation records” and also look at previously released records and video that were largely overlooked in coverage.

Check this space tomorrow morning for information about the time of the livestream. We’ll likely do it mid-afternoon, around 3 p.m. Standby also for a piece on the “investigation records.” More to come.

Thank you , , , , , and many others for tuning into my live video with ! Join me for my next live video in the app.

The ferocity of the Covid coverup is a thing to behold.

Narrated by Jared Moore

Art by Daniel Medina

Text published 07/30/26:

Listen to subscriber-only audio in your podcast app

Share the free versions of Racket To Go on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts

Join us at 4:30 PM ET at:

Substack

Rumble

YouTube

You can also find us on X, @mtaibbi or @waywardrabbler. See you soon!

I guess it’s true: you can’t hate the news media enough.

Narrated by Jared Moore

Art by Daniel Medina

Text published 07/30/26:

Listen to subscriber-only audio in your podcast app

Share the free versions of Racket To Go on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts

Some readers reached out this week, saying they wished they could share articles like, “After Fauci Debacle, Our Idiot Press Circles the Wagons.” That story is now unlocked, so you can send the link above and the story will be open.

I’ve also gone back and opened prior articles on the subject:

— “So Friggin’ Likely”: New Covid Documents Reveal Unparalleled Deception.” July 18, 2023. One of several articles co-authored with the staff of Public, on the release of Slack chats between the authors of an influential Nature Medicine article, “The Proximal Origin of SARS CoV-2.” Racket and Public were the first outlets to get hold of those documents.

— “In Their Labs”: Fifteen Illuminating Passages in The Proximal Origin Chats and Emails.” July 18, 2023. See above. More samples from the Proximal Origin chats.

— “Anthony Fauci Was America’s Warmup Dictator.” September 30, 2023. Recounting false statements by Fauci and the censorship of scientists with differing opinions.

If there are other old pieces on this subject I’m forgetting, please let me know. We have to pay the bills, but I’m happy to unlock materials in this area especially.

Mother Jones on Dr. Anthony Fauci:

The diary entries contain plenty of cringeworthy moments—Fauci congratulating himself on how famous he had become, for example, and basking in the attention of female celebrities like Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand. What they don’t contain—much to the dismay of Paul and Fauci’s other critics—is any kind of smoking gun proving that the public health leader deliberately misled the American people.

I wonder what Mother Jones would consider a smoking gun. On February 9th, 2020, appearing on the Newt Gingrich podcast “Newt’s world,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said the idea that Covid-19 came from a lab was a “conspiracy theory… without any scientific basis.”

This was eight days after Fauci took part in a conference call with eleven other prominent scientists, including NIH Director Francis Collins, Wellcome Trust Director Jeremy Farrar, UK Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance, Scripps Research Translational Institute Director Kristian Anderson, Germany’s Christian Drosten, University of Sydney Professor Edward Holmes, the University of Edinburgh’s Andrew Rambaut, Tulane Virology Professor Robert Garry, University of Dundee Professor Mike Ferguson, and Ron Fouchier and M.P.G. Koopmans from the Erasmus Medical Center.

Thanks to the diary, we now know that just three of the scientists in that call — Fauci himself, plus the German Drosten and gain-of-function expert Fouchier — advocated for natural origin. Here’s how Fauci characterized the others:

“The rest felt that deliberate insertion was possible, and given the fact that Dr. Zheng-Li Shi at the University of Wuhan has been working for years in GOF in coronaviruses to allow adaptation of the spike protein to bind to the human ACE2 receptor, we could not let this go.”

This is Fauci in writing explaining that 9 of 12 scientists at a key meeting he attended at the beginning of the pandemic felt that “deliberate insertion” of a key mutation was possible, in part because a prominent Chinese scientist known to all had been working on that exact sequencing problem just miles from where the first cases were reported. To repeat the smoking gun line: “Dr. Zheng-Li Shi at the University of Wuhan has been working for years in [gain-of-function] to allow adaptation of the spike protein to bind to the human ACE2 receptor.”

For Fauci to subsequently say in public that the notion of laboratory release was without “scientific basis” was clearly deceptive. It was deceptive when at a White House briefing on April 18th he said, “the mutations that [Covid] took to get to the point where it is now is totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.” It was deceptive not to tell the public he’d been in constant communication with the authors of a Nature Medicine paper he kept citing as proof of this theory, authors who described him as having “prompted” the paper to begin with.

Fauci’s deception was proven long before the release of the diary, anyway. Three years ago a House Committee released an email by Fauci referencing that same February 1st meeting, noting that scientist described the mutations as “most unusual to have evolved naturally,” resulting in a “suspicion that this mutation was intentionally inserted.” Why did they think this? In Fauci’s own words:

The suspicion was heightened by the fact that scientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments to determine the molecular mechanisms associated with bat viruses adapting to human infection, and the outbreak originated in Wuhan.

This is the public health official who repeatedly told the public he believed the virus evolved naturally and denounced the lab leak theory as ignorant nonsense. Did we ever hear him talk about leading scientists remarking to him about the novelty of the Covid-19 mutation? Did we hear him mention that his close colleague Jeremy Farrar called a 2015 paper written by the University of North Carolina’s Ralph Baric with China’s Zhi Zhengli “a how-to-manual for building the coronavirus in a laboratory”? Its title, after all, was “A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence.”

MoJo wasn’t the only outlet to shrug at the hearing and the diaries. NPR chose the “chilling effect” thesis, quoting New Jersey Senator Andy Kim in saying the Fauci hearings might dissuade “the next generation of people who might consider stepping up to serve our nation.”

CNN ran multiple iterations of the argument that Senator Rand Paul’s questioning of Fauci was just sour grapes, just the price of fame. “This is an assault on science and scientists, and, unfortunately, Dr. Fauci is in that seat,” said guest Dr. Scott Ratzan on the channel. “Thirty-eight years of service to the country, one of the best-known scientists in infectious disease, unfortunately, has taken a lot of heat for… issues that were not fully his.”

CBS medical correspondent Céline Gounder stressed she’d read all of Fauci’s diaries, and her big takeaway was a version of, “Who among us hasn’t taken a selfie with a celebrity?” (Nate Burleson — shame on you, dude — chimed in to say, “It’s human nature.”) She dismounted by saying, “The occasional comment about Barbara Streisand is not the headline here.”

Poring through document releases is dull. In Fauci’s case, the significant passages are about the February 1st meeting, plus another saying a failure to address certain media reports would look like Fauci and fellow officials were “covering things up,” and later entries conceding things like “we do not have good vaccinations to prevent infection.” The diary’s most remarkable quality, however, is that it’s full of passages blithely contradicting public statements. Exactly unlike the suggestion of Mother Jones, it shows he was withholding information from the public throughout. That’s on top of years of FOIA and Congressional releases showing the same thing.

Put it all together, and it still doesn’t drag a network like CBS past, “Who doesn’t love a celebrity selfie?” When it comes to knocking these people off a lie, it really does take a village.