Fauci Confirmed in 2016 'Most Probable' Gain-of-Function Biosecurity Risk Is 'Insider' Lab Leak, Despite COVID-19 Denials
The former NIAID director's pre-COVID pandemic report states that the greatest biosecurity threats in dangerous pathogen research come from "insiders who have direct access" to them.
Dr. Anthony Fauci and a 2016 NIH-led biosecurity report identified insider leaks as the “most probable” risk in gain-of-function research, contradicting later COVID-19 lab leak denials.
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This website has uncovered a 2016 report developed by Dr. Fauci and other members of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), a U.S. federal advisory committee focused on biosecurity and dual-use research.
The report explicitly underscores the biosecurity risk posed by insiders with direct access to pathogens, highlighting insider-driven lab leaks as a greater risk than external threats.
The 109-page document, titled “Recommendations for the Evaluation and Oversight of Proposed Gain-of-Function Research,” lists Fauci as an NSABB “Non-Voting Ex Officio Member,” underscoring his direct contribution to the document’s creation and the biosecurity recommendations it outlines.
Significantly, the NSABB report, composed by Fauci and team, states that the greatest biosecurity threats regarding dangerous pathogens research come from “insiders who have direct access” to the pathogens or from “outsiders who collaborate with or subvert insiders.”
In other words, it affirms that the greatest risk in gain-of-function research is a laboratory leak involving insiders with direct access to dangerous pathogens.
Fauci’s role in the report, which explicitly designates insider access as the “most probable” biosecurity risk, contrasts with his later dismissals of the COVID-19 lab leak theory.
You can read the full 2016 NSABB document below:
Coincidentally, in 2017—one year after Fauci’s report affirmed that lab leaks represent the primary biosecurity risk in gain-of-function research—the NSABB “spearhead[ed]” the lifting of the funding ban on gain-of-function research involving coronaviruses and influenza viruses.
Shortly after this ban was lifted, a coronavirus caused the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, and now experts warn of an impending H5N1 influenza bird flu pandemic.
Fauci’s Consistent Dismissal of the Lab Leak Theory
In May 2020, when the pandemic was underway, Dr. Fauci was already dismissing theories claiming the virus leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
By May 2021, during a Senate hearing, the then-NIAID director asserted that his agency, alongside the National Institutes of Health (NIH), “categorically has not funded gain-of-function research to be conducted in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
NIH Principal Deputy Director Dr. Lawrence A. Tabak would later admit before the U.S. House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic that his agency did in fact fund risky gain-of-function research at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
In March 2021, Fauci dismissed former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Robert Redfield’s comments on a possible lab leak as merely an “opinion.”
Fauci continued to downplay lab leak theories through June 2024, when he released a memoir, On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service, describing those who believe the COVID-19 pandemic originated from a WIV lab leak as promoting a “conspiracy theory.”
In the memoir, Fauci reflects on a high-profile exchange in 2021 with U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) over SARS-CoV-2 possibly escaping through a lab accident:
“The smear campaign soon boiled over into conspiracy theories,” the ex-White House chief medical adviser writes. “One of the most appalling examples of this was the allegation, without a shred of evidence, that an NIAID grant to the EcoHealth Alliance (EHA) with a subgrant to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China funded research that caused the COVID pandemic.”
Throughout, Fauci’s remarks have implied that lab leaks—whether accidental or intentional—should not be the primary focus during outbreaks, instead advocating for natural origin theories.
Meanwhile, this website revealed yesterday that while the U.S. government ultimately defunded EcoHealth Alliance due to cited lapses in gain-of-function oversight, new White House documents permit “any” federal agency to waive gain-of-function oversight requirements, raising new outbreak concerns.
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Gain of function research has been going on for years under the military complex. I believe all current viruses and pathogens were made harmful to humans in the lab... including HIV, which Fauci was involved with. I also believe influenza, Epstein-Barr, shingles, etc. were made harmful to humans in the lab. There are patents.
Excellent discovery and reporting! No surprise, but we need to document the truth. Thank you!