9th MAY Remembrance Day in Russia, in the Northern Caucasus
Feels like the USA, but before the insanity. Deeply moving, very respectful day in the life.
NIH director confirms agency hid early COVID genes at request of Chinese scientists
May 11, 2022
"National Institutes of Health acting director Lawrence Tabak confirmed to lawmakers Wednesday that US health officials concealed early genomic sequences of COVID-19 at the request of Chinese scientists — but insisted the data remains on file.
Tabak told a House Appropriations subcommittee that the NIH “eliminated from public view” the data from the pandemic epicenter in Wuhan, China, before adding that researchers can still access it via an archaic “tape drive.”
Vanity Fair recently reported that the information was hidden in response to a request from Chinese scientists, despite potentially resolving whether the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology or passed naturally from animals to humans.
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) asked Tabek to explain why US officials would comply with such a request.
“There’s no question that the communication that we had about the sequence archive — Sequence Read Archive — could have been improved. I freely admit that,” Tabek said. “If I may, the archive never deleted the sequence, it just did not make it available for interrogation.”
“So wait, you have the information still?” Beutler followed up.
“We have the information … Anybody who submits to the Sequence Read Archive is allowed to ask for it to be removed,” Tabak explained. “And that investigator did do that. But we never erase it.”
“So you don’t have the information anymore?” Beutler asked.
“We do. We never erase the information. We keep it,” Tabak clarified.
“So they were able to withdraw public viewing of it?” the congresswoman followed up.
“That’s correct,” he said.
“OK, so researchers can apply to the NIH and get the information from you?” Beutler asked.
“In the way that it was originally eliminated from public view, it was withdrawn, and that’s the most difficult for people to access,” Tabak replied. “The error that was made, and we found this out after a review of all of our processes, was it should have been suppressed. The distinction being that if it’s withdrawn, it is kept archivally on a tape drive — old technology, but that’s how it’s done. But when it is withdrawn, it can still be accessed by accession number, and so researchers are able to access that information.”
“So the information is still there?” Beutler summed up.
“That’s correct. The information was never lost,” Tabak repeated.
see also
Dr. Anthony Fauci
Fauci dismissed Wuhan lab leak theory as ‘shiny object’ in April 2020 email
In a March 31 article, Vanity Fair reported that evolutionary biologist Jesse Bloom discovered last year that early COVID-19 sequences had disappeared from a federally run data repository.
When Bloom raised the issue, he was reportedly ganged up on by a group of researchers assembled by then-NIH Director Francis Collins and infectious disease institute head Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Bloom shared a draft academic paper with Collins and Fauci, who allegedly objected on a June 2021 Zoom video conference to Bloom’s description of Chinese scientists “surreptitiously” removing the sequences. Fauci said the word was “loaded” and implied a coverup, the report said.
Evolutionary biologist Kristian Andersen, who was selected to participate on the call by Collins, allegedly told Bloom that the Wuhan team had a right to claw back early pandemic information and that it was unethical for Bloom to question it.
Andersen allegedly went so far as to offer to delete Bloom’s article from a “preprint” server “in a way that would leave no record that this had been done.”
China’s government has refused to cooperate with an international investigation of the origins of the pandemic. The COVID-19 virus has killed about 1 million Americans since March 2020 and caused massive social, economic and educational disruptions.
The US intelligence community said in an August report that it’s possible the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, calling the theory one of two “plausible” explanations along with natural transmission from animals."
Sauce/moar:
https://nypost.com/2022/05/11/nih-director-tabak-confirms-agency-hid-covid-genes-per-chinese/
This is nuts. I enlarge 1 pic and I get a LOT of memes to the side, like a slideshow. Cool.
picrel
>Middleton
obit
"Biography: Mark Edward Middleton, 59 of Little Rock, went to be in the loving arms of God on Saturday, May 7, 2022. Mark was born in Little Rock on October 12, 1962.
Mark is survived by his loving and devoted wife Rhea, daughters; Lindsay and Lauren, father; Charles (Chuck) Middleton, mother; Anita Middleton-Kellar, brother; Steven Lawrence (Larry) Middleton, sister; Sandra Leeann (Sandy) Middleton-Marshall. Mark was a devoted uncle, and his legacy will live on in the hearts and minds of all who loved him as well as his community at Middleton Heat and Air.
Mark's contributions to this community include serving on board of directors of CHI St. Vincent Foundation, CARTI, Arvest, board of advisors for UAMS Foundation Fund, Fifty For The Future, American Association of Air Conditioning Contractors, Arkansas General Contractors Associations, and Young Presidents Organization.
A private family celebration of life will be held May 12, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. The Middleton Family would like to invite any interested to join the live feed via Facebook Live @RFHome.
In lieu of flowers please make donations to Navigate Counseling and Wellness, a mental health ministry of NLC. Checks may be mailed to 633 South Country Club, Conway, AR 72034.
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/mark-middleton-obituary?pid=201978149