Members of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight have asked Dr. Steven Quay for testimony on Wednesday regarding his gain-of function research, with a particular focus on the origins and spread of the Chinese coronavirus epidemic.
Quay, Atossa Therapeutics’ CEO, has called for an internal investigation into the causes of the Chinese coronavirus epidemic. During Wednesday’s hearing, he will testify about the results of his own research. Richard H. Ebright (Ph.D.), Laboratory Director at Waksman Institute of Microbiology and Kevin M. Esvelt (Ph.D.), Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab will also testify.
Quay will be testifying before U.S. legislators on the origins and spread of the pandemic. In his prepared opening remarks, Quay stated that he believes that the COVID pandemic was not natural and came from Wuhan China’s laboratory. He also said that genetic manipulations through “gain-of function” research have been used to create the evidence.
Quay stated that failure to understand the risks associated with gain-of function research is an “existential danger to life as it exists on this planet.”
This hearing is nine months after Dr. Anthony Fauci contradicted him by stating that the National Institutes of Health (NIH), had funded gain-of function research at the Wuhan laboratory.
EcoHealth Alliance was awarded the NIH grant. The Wuhan lab was sub-awarded the grant. It funded a project to determine if spike proteins from bat coronaviruses circulating naturally in China could be binding to the human ACE2 receptors in a mouse model.
Rand Paul (R-KY), has gone to war against Fauci over White House medical advisor’s insistence that gain-of function research had not occurred. The senator even claimed that Fauci was changing the definitions of gain-of function “to cover” his “ass.”
“You are simply claiming it doesn’t exist due to the change in the definition on NIH’s website. This is a terrible thing and you are trying to avoid the fact that we need to do something to stop a pandemic leaking from a laboratory. Paul stated that you had changed the definition of your website in an attempt to cover your arse.