GOP Congressman Says Fauci Needs To Answer For Why His Agency Bypassed Oversight Of Funding To Wuhan Lab

Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania said it is “very concerning” that the National Institutes of Allergies and Infectious Diseases bypassed oversight of a research grant that involved the transfer of $600,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to modify bat-based coronaviruses.

“When it comes to oversight of U.S. tax dollars headed to the Chinese Communist Party, Dr. Fauci seems like he’s literally whistling past the graveyard,” Perry told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Experts said the NIAID’s grant involved gain-of-function research on coronaviruses, but a federal review board that exists to scrutinize such research was never notified of the grant.

Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania said it is “very concerning” that the federal infectious disease research organization led by Dr. Anthony Fauci bypassed federal oversight of a grant that funded a lab in Wuhan, China to genetically modify bat-based coronaviruses.

Infectious disease experts say the National Institutes of Allergies and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID) grant with the nonprofit group EcoHealth Alliance, which involved the transfer of $600,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), described scientists conducting gain-of-function research on SARS-like viruses to make them even more contagious. But a federal oversight board created in 2017 to scrutinize such research was not notified of the grant because the NIAID opted against forwarding it for review, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported.

“When it comes to oversight of U.S. tax dollars headed to the Chinese Communist Party, Dr. Fauci seems like he’s literally whistling past the graveyard,” Perry told the DCNF.

The WIV is at the center of widespread speculation that COVID-19 could have accidentally leaked from its lab into the human population. A World Health Organization investigation into the origins of the pandemic concluded in late March that it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus could have escaped from a lab.

But WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said his organization’s assessment of the lab leak theory was not sufficient and that further investigation was necessary.

The Department of Health and Human Service created the Potential Pathogens Control and Oversight (P3CO) review framework in late 2017 following a three-year federal funding moratorium on gain-of-function research. Had the EcoHealth grant been subjected to P3CO review, an HHS panel would have independently evaluated the grant and, if necessary, recommended additional biocontainment measures to prevent potential lab leaks — or even recommended that the grant be denied entirely.

Rutgers University professor of chemical biology Richard H. Ebright previously told the DCNF that NIAID’s ability to sidestep the P3CO framework is a “systemic problem.” Ebright said the offices of the director for NIAID and the National Institutes of Health have “systematically thwarted — indeed systematically nullified — the HHS P3CO Framework by declining to flag and forward proposals for review.”

EcoHealth president Peter Daszak, who was the only American member of the WHO’s investigation into COVID-19’s origins, spoke about how easy it was to manipulate bat-based coronaviruses during a podcast interview filmed just weeks before the first cases were reported in Wuhan.

https://dailycaller.com/2021/04/05/scott-perry-anthony-fauci-niaid-wuhan-funding/

261 Transgender Prisoners Request Transfer Under California Law; 255 to Women’s Prison

Two-hundred sixty-one California state prisoners have requested transfers to facilities that house the opposite gender since a new law went into effect on Jan. 1 — and 255 of them have requested to move from a male to a female corrections facility.

The law, SB 132, provides that a prisoner who self-identifies who is “transgender, nonbinary, or intersex” must be “addressed in a manner consistent with the incarcerated individual’s gender identity,” and be “housed at a correctional facility designated for men or women based on the individual’s preference.” The law applies “regardless of anatomy.” Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law last September, declaring on that occasion that “our march toward equality takes an additional step forward.”

The Los Angeles Times reported Monday that while only a few transfers have been approved thus far, none has been rejected:

Just over 1% of California’s prison population — or 1,129 inmates — have identified as nonbinary, intersex or transgender, according to the corrections department, populations that experience excessive violence in prison. A 2007 UC Irvine study that included interviews with 39 transgender inmates found that the rate of sexual assault is 13 times higher for transgender people, with 59% reporting experiencing such encounters.

So far, the prison system has transferred four inmates to the Chowchilla women’s prison, approved 21 gender-based housing requests and denied none. Of the 261 requests, all but six asked to be housed at a women’s facility.

…

Some prisoners are also concerned that inmates are making false claims about their gender identity in order to transfer to women’s prisons and say staffers have told them that this has slowed the process.

The Times adds that several inmates are thought to have applied “under false pretenses” and some female prisoners are afraid.

Women’s groups in Canada held a protest last month to urge the removal of biological males from women’s prison facilities.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/04/05/261-transgender-prisoners-request-transfer-under-california-law-255-to-womens-prison/

Chicago Shootings In March Top Four Year High As Mayor Lightfoot's Plan To Combat Crime Fails

Two years since Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot won that runoff election, her multi-year plan to combat violent crime across the Democratic-run city is in shambles.

The Chicago Police's Monthly Crime Newsletter shows the number of shootings in the metro area in March - and the number of shooting victims - jumped to a four-year high. The report is a stark reminder of Lightfoot's anti-violence plan to reduce violent crime and rebuild communities has hit a snag.

In March, there were 233 shooting incidents and 298 shooting victims, the report showed. This compares to 146 shootings and 175 victims in March 2020, 136 shooting incidents and 165 victims in March 2019, and 136 shootings, with 151 victims in March 2018.

Homicides in the Democratic stronghold city were up 33% in the first three months of this year compared with the same period in 2020. For the same period, shootings were up 40%.

The surge in violence comes as Lightfoot is fighting the unprecedented socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 across the metro area. Her multi-year plan to heal the community, protect and secure public places, improve policing, among other goals, has yet to decrease violent crime.

At some point, her stated goals will have to come into question as some public health experts warn of a "perfect storm" of socio-economic collapse, virus pandemic, mental health crisis, and drug epidemic are some factors resulting in the wave of violent crime. There's also a community-based movement calling for de-policing that continues to widen the trust between the community and police.

Just this weekend alone, seven people were killed and at least 27 others wounded in shootings across the city. An uptick in shootings and violence could be associated with warmer weather trends as criminal gangs fight for turf.

Data compiled by HeyJackass shows on a year-to-date basis, homicides, and shootings are significantly higher than last year. This is problematic ahead of the summer season when much of the killing occurs. Chicago's situation echoes that of many other liberal-run cities, where crime has run rampant since last summer's "peaceful protests," which consisted of property damage, assaults, looting, and lighting cities on fire. The latest "police reform" protest turned violent last month.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/chicago-shootings-march-top-four-year-high-mayor-lightfoots-plan-combat-crime-falters