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Rand PaulonX / Twitter1d ago
Ralph Baric has never answered this question satisfactorily: Why did he never inform pandemic leaders that his lab and Wuhan bat scientist Shi Zhengli had submitted a proposal to genetically engineer a coronavirus with a furin cleavage site two years before a pandemic caused by a coronavirus with a furin cleavage site erupted in Wuhan, China? Adding a furin cleavage site is a gain-of-function experiment and may be one of the reasons COVID-19 became able to infect humans!
Baric’s withholding of this knowledge prevented scientists from realizing early on that COVID-19 was not a typical animal virus that often infects humans poorly, but was likely a coronavirus purposefully engineered to infect humans. Withholding knowledge of these proposed experiments allowed Fauci et al. to cover up his approval of NIH funding for gain-of-function experiments in Wuhan and to deceptively shift blame to the “wet market.” The cover-up would have been less successful had Ralph Baric revealed that scientists in Wuhan were seeking funding for these gain-of-function experiments.
realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2026/…
Trust Metrics
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Accuracy72%
Framing55%
Context55%
Tone55%
Analysis Summary
Rand Paul is pointing to the 2018 DEFUSE grant proposal — a real document in which Ralph Baric and Wuhan's Shi Zhengli pitched inserting furin cleavage sites into bat coronaviruses, roughly two years before SARS-CoV-2 emerged with exactly that feature. The RealClearInvestigations piece he links also reports, consistent with Children's Health Defense, that NIH has pulled Baric's grants and UNC placed him on leave. Whether the FCS in SARS-CoV-2 came from that line of research or arose naturally is still genuinely contested among virologists; Paul presents the lab-engineering interpretation as near-certain. What the post leaves out: DARPA rejected the DEFUSE proposal in 2018, and there's no public evidence the specific experiment was actually performed — the strongest case is circumstantial pattern-matching, not a documented engineered virus.
Claims Analysis (6)
“Baric and Shi Zhengli submitted a proposal (DEFUSE) to genetically engineer a coronavirus with a furin cleavage site about two years before COVID-19 emerged”
The 2018 DEFUSE proposal to DARPA, which proposed inserting furin cleavage sites into SARS-related coronaviruses, is documented in leaked records and confirmed by multiple outlets.
“Adding a furin cleavage site is a gain-of-function experiment”
Most virologists agree inserting an FCS to enhance human transmissibility qualifies as gain-of-function; some dispute the regulatory definition.
“Adding a furin cleavage site may be one of the reasons COVID-19 became able to infect humans”
The FCS in SARS-CoV-2 is unusual among sarbecoviruses and central to its human transmissibility, but whether it arose naturally or via engineering remains debated.
“Baric never informed pandemic leaders about the DEFUSE proposal”
Baric's private communications with officials in early 2020 are not fully public; some emails show internal discussion but extent of disclosure to 'pandemic leaders' is unclear.
“Baric's withholding allowed Fauci to cover up NIH funding for gain-of-function experiments in Wuhan and shift blame to the wet market”
This is Paul's interpretation. NIH funded EcoHealth/WIH research, but characterizing intent as 'cover up' is contested political framing.
“NIH has removed Baric from all his grants and UNC placed him on leave”
RealClearInvestigations and Children's Health Defense report this; not yet confirmed by Tier 1 outlets, but consistent reporting from the linked source.
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