A top adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has admitted to using his personal email account to skirt Freedom of Information Act requests and went so far as to delete some emails during the pandemic, according to records obtained by House lawmakers investigating the origin of the coronavirus pandemic.
The emails were revealed Thursday by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which claimed Dr. David Morens, whose tenure with the NIAID spans roughly 25 years, may have broken the law.
In an email exchange between Morens and Bloomberg reporter Jason Gale, Morens made clear that he had to receive approval from the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services to talk about the "Origins" of COVID-19.
"But today, to my total surprise, my boss Tony [Fauci] actually ASKED me to speak to the National Geographic on the record about origins. I interpret this to mean that our government is lightening up[,] but that Tony doesn't want his fingerprints on origin stories," he added in the July 29, 2021, email to Gale.
In other emails, Morens expressed concern over what was sent to his work email and what was sent to his personal email, informing those on the email chain that they did not need to worry and that he would "Delete anything I don't want to see in the New York Times."
"As you know, I try to always communicate on gmail because my NIH email is FOIA'd constantly," Morens wrote in a September 2021 email, which was sent at the time to many scientists involved in the debate over the origins of COVID. "Stuff sent to my gmail gets to my phone but not my NIH computer."
"Don't worry, just send to any of my addresses, and I will delete anything I don't want to see in the New York Times," he added in the email.... Submitted 6 hours ago.
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