{"id":1407501,"date":"2022-03-29T13:45:14","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T17:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1407501"},"modified":"2022-03-29T13:45:24","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T17:45:24","slug":"empower-oversight-releases-research-on-nih-deleting-coronavirus-data-during-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/empower-oversight-releases-research-on-nih-deleting-coronavirus-data-during-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Empower Oversight Releases Research on NIH Deleting Coronavirus Data During the Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fempower-oversight-releases-research-on-nih-deleting-coronavirus-data-during-the-pandemic%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1407501&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<div class=\"page-content\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"text-white text-sm p-2 inline-flex uppercase\">Research<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"text-base pb-7 inline-flex\">March 29, 2022<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0<\/strong>Empower Oversight is<a href=\"https:\/\/empowr.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Coronavirus-Sequences-Removed-from-NIH-Database-at-the-Request-of-Chinese-Researchers-2-min.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/empowr.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Coronavirus-Sequences-Removed-from-NIH-Database-at-the-Request-of-Chinese-Researchers-1-compressed.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">releasing a report detailing<\/a>\u00a0an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/21473774-nih-foia-request-56712_redacted\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">initial tranche of 238 pages<\/a>\u00a0of National Institutes of Health (NIH) documents relating to the termination of public access to coronavirus genetic sequences from NIH\u2019s Sequence Read Archive (SRA) at the request of a researcher from China\u2019s Wuhan University in June 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Since July 2021, Empower Oversight\u2014through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and litigation in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia\u2014has sought records related the controversy over the NIH agreeing to remove information from the SRA and its failure to respond to related questions from a group of U.S. Senators.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDiscovering the origin of COVID-19 is vital to ensuring that no pandemic like it ever happens again. Yet, shortly after it began, the NIH bowed to the wishes of researchers in Wuhan to terminate public access to genetic sequences that could shed light on how it began,\u201d\u00a0<strong>said Jason Foster, Founder and President of Empower Oversight.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In conjunction with its\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/empowr.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Coronavirus-Sequences-Removed-from-NIH-Database-at-the-Request-of-Chinese-Researchers-1-compressed.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">release<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/21473774-nih-foia-request-56712_redacted\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">initial tranche of 238 pages of NIH documents<\/a>, Empower Oversight is publishing a report of key findings that can be gleaned from them.\u00a0\u00a0These findings include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>NIH initially declined a Wuhan University researcher\u2019s request to terminate public access on the SRA to one set of coronavirus genetic sequences before agreeing to a later request from the same researcher to terminate public access on the SRA to a second set of coronavirus genetic sequences.\u00a0\u00a0Further, in connection with its agreement to terminate public access to the second set of coronavirus genetic sequences, NIH offered to remove both sets of coronavirus genetic sequences (these two sets of coronavirus genetic sequences are hereinafter collectively referred to as \u201cthe sequences\u201d)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Immediately prior to the publication of a paper by an American Scholar, Dr. Jesse Bloom, which revealed NIH\u2019s termination of public access to the sequences, NIH Director Francis Collins and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci hosted a conference call of experts to discuss the termination and conclusions about the sequences that had been drawn by Dr. Bloom, who had been able to reconstruct some of them from the Cloud.\u00a0\u00a0One of the invitees advised the conferees that the sequences seemed to support the theory that the pandemic began outside of the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan and that they needed to be analyzed further.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>After publication of Dr. Blooms paper, in \u201coff-the-record\u201d emails, an NIH communications official steered reporters toward more favorable coverage concerning termination of public access to the sequences by The Washington Post, and away from coverage by The New York Times, whose \u201ctone\u201d had been criticized in communications among NIH officials.\u00a0\u00a0Additionally, NIH\u2019s communications staff appears to have provided reporters with inaccurate information concerning NIH\u2019s policy for terminating public access to genetic sequences on the SRA.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Although NIH claims that it retains copies of the sequences \u201cfor preservation purposes,\u201d it refused to examine them in a transparent process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Dr. Bloom pressed NIH about a separate set of coronavirus genetic sequences whose public access also had been terminated on the SRA, claiming that they were being examined by \u201can investigative entity.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In addition to Empower Oversight\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/empowr.us\/nih-covid-database-foia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">FOIA request<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/empowr.us\/empower-oversight-sues-nih-for-documents-on-its-deletion-of-genetic-data-related-to-covid-19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0(with an amended\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/empowr.us\/empower-oversight-amends-complaint-in-nih-lawsuit-on-deleted-coronavirus-sequences\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">complaint<\/a>), it has focused on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic since last year, releasing a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/empowr.us\/covid-19-origins-timeline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">COVID-19 origins timeline<\/a>\u00a0in September 2021. In January 2022, Empower Oversight\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/empowr.us\/empower-oversight-details-evidence-in-the-u-s-for-missouri-ags-covid-19-suit-against-china\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sent a letter<\/a>\u00a0to Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt regarding that state\u2019s civil suit against China and its Community Party, along with the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences for their roles in the global pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>If you have first-hand information you\u2019d like to disclose to assist Empower Oversight with these inquiries, please contact us confidentially\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/empowr.us\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Research March 29, 2022 WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0Empower Oversight is\u00a0releasing a report detailing\u00a0an\u00a0initial tranche of 238 pages\u00a0of National Institutes of Health (NIH) documents relating to the termination of public<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1407501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1407501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1407501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1407501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1407501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1407501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1407501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}