OPINION:
“Hot mic catches Dr. Fauci calling GOP senator ’moron’” (Web, Jan. 11) might actually be more indicative of self-reflection on Fauci’s part. The media has generally failed to take Fauci to task for his longtime support of gain-of-function experimentation intended to make pathogens more infectious in humans. Nevertheless, writing for the American Society for Microbiology in 2012, Fauci defended such research, even at the risk that an experiment “leads to an outbreak and ultimately triggers a pandemic,” writing: “Scientists working in this field might say — as indeed I have said — that the benefits of such experiments and the resulting knowledge outweigh the risks.” Regardless of the exact and circuitous dispersal of U.S. funds, Fauci allowed U.S. funds to go to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was known for gain-of-function testing under less-than-optimal microbial containment.
China is intent on world domination. Its disreputable economy is responsible for killing our pets via the addition of toxic melamine to pet food, introducing potentially carcinogenic NDMA (n-nitrosodimethylamine) into the world’s active drug supply and illegally diveting study animals to food-distribution channels.
As a biologist who formerly handled bioresesrch monitoring in the field for Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey’s Division of Scientific Investigations at the FDA, I have scientific and ethical reservations about the creation of new life forms capable of ending human life on Earth. Fauci should use the assignation “moron” advisedly.
WILLIAM T. FIDURSKI
Clark, N.J.
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