Dr. Anthony Fauci previously contended that the benefits of conducting gain-of-function research outweighed the risk that it could spark a pandemic.
Investigative reporter Sharri Markson, who is the author of the upcoming book, “What Really Happened In Wuhan,” highlighted the previously unreported remarks from Fauci in 2012 in a report for The Australian.
Fauci said at the time: "Putting aside the specter of bioterrorism for the moment, consider this hypothetical scenario: an important gain-of-function experiment involving a virus with serious pandemic potential is performed in a well-regulated, world-class laboratory by experienced investigators, but the information from the experiment is then used by another scientist who does not have the same training and facilities and is not subject to the same regulations. In an unlikely but conceivable turn of events, what if that scientist becomes infected with the virus, which leads to an outbreak and ultimately triggers a pandemic?
"Many ask reasonable questions: given the possibility of such a scenario—however remote—should the initial experiments have been performed and/or published in the first place, and what were the processes involved in this decision?
"Scientists working in this field might say—as indeed I have said—that the benefits of such experiments and the resulting knowledge outweigh the risks. It is more likely that a pandemic would occur in nature, and the need to stay ahead of such a threat is a primary reason for performing an experiment that might appear to be risky."
Gain-of-function research tries to create more infectious strains of diseases before they arise in nature in an effort to defend against them.
Markson's investigation also confirmed that Dr Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, did not alert senior White House officials before lifting the ban on gain-of-function research in 2017.
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