According to a report in theblaze.com,
the National Institute of Health (NIH) deleted certain sequences of coronavirus
data from the agency’s Sequence Read Archive. This was allegedly done early in
the pandemic, at the request of Chinese researchers. Doctor Jesse Bloom,
a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, published a study
in June of 2021 that identified the missing sequences and recovered the files
from the Google Cloud, from which he performed an analysis to learn more about
the origins of the virus.
Why was the data deleted? NIH FOIA
officer Gorka Garcia-Malene wrote: “Exemption 6 mandates the withholding of
information that if disclosed ‘would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion
of personal privacy.’ 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6). Exemption 6 was applied here due to the heightened
public scrutiny with anything remotely related to COVID-19.” Huh? “Heightened
public scrutiny” of China’s role in the pandemic would be a good thing,
though maybe not for the NIH.
Garcia-Malene also
claimed, "If released, this type of information could be used by the
public to send threatening and harassing messages.” To whom?
And then came the
Orwellian Whopper. Garcia-Malene stated that the information needed to be
redacted "because of the amount of misinformation surrounding the pandemic and
its origins."
Talk about preposterous!
As independent journalist Paul Thacker
aptly put it: "Seriously,
the NIH is now arguing in court that because there is so much misinformation
about how the pandemic began, they can’t release facts that might clear up
misinformation about how the pandemic began.”
The
only thing that can counteract misinformation is accurate information.
Logically,
it follows that theblaze.com’s report—and Thacker’s analysis-- was accurate…and
that the NIH is trafficking in misinformation. And perhaps has been
compromised by the Chinese Communist Party?
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