Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) has revealed the contents of an official 2017 report from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under Dr. Anthony Fauci. It includes a warning about the lack of training at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China.
“It is clear to me by talking to the technician that there certainly is a need for training support.”
Dr. Ping Chen, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
“It is clear to me by talking to the technician that there certainly is a need for training support,” wrote Dr. Ping Chen of NIAID.
Johnson, the lead Republican on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Acting Director Lawrence Tabak, reiterating multi-year requests for an interview with and records from Dr. Chen regarding her 2017 WIV safety concerns.
Since 2021, Johnson’s oversight efforts have revealed how Dr. Chen’s concerns eventually informed the language in a January 2018 State Department cable about the WIV that stated, “[d]uring interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they noted that the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory.”
Yet, as a result of HHS’s lack of transparency, the extent to which NIH and NIAID officials took action following receipt of Dr. Chen’s report remains unclear.
HHS stonewalled and obstructed Johnson’s oversight, according to his office, forcing his staff to review documents at HHS headquarters rather than transparently producing unredacted records to Congress.
During these document reviews at HHS headquarters, the senator’s staff transcribed the contents of previously-redacted records. It included information that HHS refused to hand over to Congress or the public after Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
In his letter to HHS and NIH, Johnson identified two images in Dr. Chen’s report. “The image on the left shows what HHS produced publicly via FOIA. On the right is an image of what my staff transcribed during an in camera review of Dr. Chen’s report.” (See images below)
Assessing HHS’s redactions, Johnson stated the following:
“In the public FOIA document, HHS redacted Dr. Chen’s entire report claiming that it contains privacy and deliberative information. Following my staff’s in camera review of the report, it seems apparent that the only reason that HHS redacted this information was to hide the report’s contents from the American people. Perhaps HHS did not want the public to fully understand the fact that NIH and NIAID officials were aware of safety concerns at the WIV dating as far back as 2017.”
Johnson has given HHS and NIH until October 5, 2023 to provide unredacted records relating to Dr. Chen and the WIV and make Dr. Chen available for an interview.
The full letter can be found here and below. It includes Dr. Chen’s report and the partial contents of communications HHS hid from public view.
September 21, 2023
The Honorable Xavier Becerra
Secretary
Department of Health and Human Services
Lawrence A. Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D. Acting Director
National Institutes of Health
Dear Secretary Becerra and Acting Director Tabak:
I have obtained information confirming my earlier suspicions that officials at
the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) were aware of safety issues at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) as early as October 2017.
In August 2021, Senator Rand Paul and I wrote to HHS and NIH requesting the unredacted records of Dr. Ping Chen, a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) official who visited the WIV in 2017.1 Our request was based on a review of heavily redacted documents showing that, after returning from the WIV, Dr. Chen communicated with other NIAID officials about the WIV and even drafted a report about her visit.2
Based on Dr. Chen’s communications with a colleague, we knew that Dr. Chen’s report partially served as the basis for a January 19, 2018 State Department cable that raised safety concerns about the WIV.3 However, because of HHS’s redactions and refusal to provide a copy
1 Letter to Xavier Becerra, Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services, and Francis Collins, Director, National Institutes of Health, from Ron Johnson, Ranking Member, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Rand Paul, United States Senator, Aug. 19, 2021, https://www ronjohnson.senate.gov/services/files/A60D3BD2- 9083-4C61-91DA-72D2AEC39155.
2 On August 17, 2021, NIH and HHS produced approximately 200 pages of heavily redacted emails in response to a June 11, 2021 letter signed by Senator Ron Johnson and four other colleagues on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 2954, requesting information related to the WIV. See Letter from Ron Johnson, Ranking Member, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, et al., to Xavier Becerra, Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services, and Francis Collins, Director, National Institutes of Health, June 11, 2021; Letter to Xavier Becerra, Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services, and Francis Collins, Director, National Institutes of Health, from Ron Johnson, Ranking Member, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Rand Paul, United States Senator, Aug. 19, 2021, https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/services/files/A60D3BD2-9083-4C61-91DA-72D2AEC39155.
3 April 15-16, 2020: Ping Chen emails Gray Handley, NIAID Associate Director for International Research Affairs, about the January 19, 2018 cable stating, “I was listed as drafter. About half of the content was taken from my [visit] summary” (Freedom of Information Act Production to Judicial Watch, Inc., from, Department of Health and Human Services Emails from Ping Chen to Gray Handley, Apr. 15-16, 2020); Cable from U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China Opens First Bio Safety Level 4 Laboratory, Jan. 19, 2018 at 2 [on file with Subcomm.].
September 21, 2023 Page 5
3. Make Dr. Ping Chen available for an interview before the staff of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Please provide this information as soon as possible but no later than October 5, 2023. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Ron Johnson
Ranking Member
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
cc: The Honorable Richard Blumenthal Chairman
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
The Honorable Christi Grimm
Inspector General
Department of Health and Human Services
Ms. Diana Shaw
Acting Inspector General Department of State
Enclosure
Visit The Sharyl Attkisson Store today
Unique gifts for independent thinkers
Proceeds benefit independent journalism
This seems like a companion piece to the one titled “(READ) Dr. Fauci may have influenced CIA’s Covid-19 origins investigation.”
I wouldn’t let them off the hook that easy…I believe the strain was released intentionally for a variety of reasons 1) torpedo Trump’s reelection 2) stave off Trump’s trade war with China, which he was winning, 3) control the masses in China who were, at the time, rising up, and more? Win win win for the CCP.
On a personal note: You ARE one of the last honest journalists. Wish I could get everyone to follow you…but I keep trying.
There was an article early on, from a French journalist, who was at the opening of the wuhan lab, I am pretty sure it was in 2015. This article stated that the lab was unsafe from the very beginning.
“It is clear to me by talking to the technician that there certainly is a need for training support.”
With all due respect to Dr. Chen, talking to one technician, over whom no managerial authority is exercised, two years prior to the alleged “leak” is hardly earth shattering, nor is it indicative of the overall training. It is also not indicative of what may have been in place at the time of the alleged leak.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/australian-scientist-the-sole-foreign-researcher-at-the-wuhan-lab-speaks-out-20210628-p584sv.html