Misleading: U.S. Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Fauci sent money to Wuhan to conduct research on COVID-19.

By: Rachel Muller-Heyndyk
January 21 2022

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Fauci sent money to Wuhan, but there is no evidence this was used for suspicious purposes, as claimed by senior Republicans. In a video addressing her Twitter followers, Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn states that Dr. Fauci sent money to Wuhan in order to fund their research on COVID-19. "It was Dr. Fauci and his agency that wrote that check, sent that money to the Wuhan Institute of virology to do thus coronavirus research." While the National Institutes of Health (NIH) did indeed send money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the funding was halted, and Fauci has denied that any of the money was used for "function research" in order to make the disease more transmissible, as reported in CBNC. Fauci reportedly sent $600,000 over a period of five years through the NIH's non-profit, EcoHealth Alliance, before the funding was halted. During a Senate hearing May 26 2021, Fauci said there was no guarantee that scientists did not lie about the use of funding. On the same day, President Biden announced that he would order an into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Republican lawmakers called for Fauci's termination and stated that Fauci had previous, concealed knowledge about Wuhan's alleged involvement in COVID-19. However, there is not yet any evidence to suggest that Wuhan had cultivated or engineered COVID-19 in a laboratory. Furthermore, there is no evidence that Fauci had attempted to conceal information or mislead the public on COVID-19 and health guidance. After Buzzfeed released several of Fauci's e-mail threads, a number of false and misleading claims have arisen. Alongside the proposed events in Wuhan, Fauci's opponents and right-wing news sites have said that Fauci knew about the alleged benefits of hydroxychloroquine but chose to hide this and that Fauci misleads Texans on the dangers of COVID-19 after the state lifted its rules on mandatory masks in public spaces. While it is true that money was sent to Wuhan, Blackburn and others have used this information to create unevidenced claims on Fauci's involvement with China and unproven research into COVID-19. As such, we have marked the claim as misleading. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organisation or your national healthcare authority. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19, including symptoms, prevention, and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organization or your national healthcare authority.