BREAKING: my months-long @VanityFair investigation on #COVID19 origins is live. Interviews w/ over 40 people, review of hundreds of pgs. of U.S. gov't docs. incl. internal memos, meeting minutes, email correspondence, found.... vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/t… /1
Conflicts of interest, in part from large US gov't grants supporting controversial virology research, known as "gain-of-function," hampered U.S. gov't investigation into #COVID19 origins, and legit. questions on #LabLeak hypothesis, at every step. /2
In a 12/9/20 @StateDept meeting, officials say they were explicitly told by colleagues not to explore Wuhan Institute of Virology’s gain-of-function research, because it would bring unwelcome att'n to U.S. gov't funding of it. /3
In internal memo, Thomas DiNanno, then acting ass't secretary of @StateDept Arms Control, Verification, Compliance bureau documented his team was "warned...“not to pursue an investigation into the origin of COVID-19” because it would “‘open a can of worms’ if it continued.” /4
Four former State Dep't officials told @VanityFair they were repeatedly advised not to open a "Pandora's box." DiNanno said: “smelled like a cover-up, and I wasn’t going to be part of it.” /5
How much U.S. taxpayer $$ went to Wuhan Institute of Virology? On her CV, a lead researcher Shi Zhengli listed U.S. gov't support of more than $1.2 million over 5 years: $665,000 from @NIH; $559,500 from @USAID. /6
Former @CDCgov director @redfield_dr got death threats from fellow scientists after telling CNN he believed #COVID19 had lab origin. “I was threatened and ostracized because I proposed another hypothesis,” Redfield told @VanityFair. /7
Personal note: reporting this story has been like an Escher drawing. Each time I thought I'd gotten to top of the staircase, it turned again. Had to peel away conspiracy theories/racist insinuations from legit. concerns, of which there are many. /8
Many experts, quoted and unquoted, gave me valuable input. Grateful to time spent by @mlipsitch @R_H_Ebright @jbloom_lab @Ayjchan @K_G_Andersen @DavidRelman @gdemaneuf @JamieMetzl @StevenQuay @canardbruno @DecrolyE Dr. James LeDuc & more. /9
An amazing @VanityFair crew worked countless hours to land this story.🙏to my fabulous editor @mike_hogan, tireless fact checkers Brendan Barr & Dale Brauner, @lili_pike for terrific reporting & impeccable Chinese translation, @radhikajones for green light & more. /10
Lastly, if you're reading this thread, and have real info re. COVID origins, Wuhan Institute of Virology, etc., please DM me for Signal. /End

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More from @KatherineEban

29 Mar
"Right now, I'm scared," warns @CDCDirector on press call, emotion in her voice: 10% increase in cases over last week; deaths rising to 1,000 per day. Warns of European trajectory. #COVID19.
@CDCDirector Calls on the press to sound the alarm. Warns unmistakably of a 4th surge.
@CDCDirector .CDCdirector warns that states are "opening up at levels that we would not recommend." Explains that "vaccinations will be so much slower if we have another surge to deal with as well."
Read 4 tweets
15 Mar
SCOOP: My latest
@VanityFair
investigation chronicles the battle in the Trump Admin's final days over which federal employees would get scarce #COVID19 vaccinations. vanityfair.com/news/2021/03/h… #ShotChasers (corrected link) /1
A closely guarded @WhiteHouse list attracted almost every stripe of would-be line jumper, from reps of Cabinet secretaries to young desk jockeys to those claiming ties to @jaredkushner. /2
The process for divvying up vaccines to federal employees was so opaque, White House COVID-19 task force members suspected doses were being "siphoned" off the top. /3
Read 4 tweets
15 Mar
SCOOP: My latest @VanityFair investigation chronicles the battle in the Trump Admin's final days over which federal employees would get scarce #COVID19 vaccinations. vanityfair.com/news/2021/03/h… #ShotChasers
A closely guarded @WhiteHouse list attracted almost every stripe of would-be line jumper, from reps of Cabinet secretaries to young desk jockeys to those claiming ties to @jaredkushner. /2
The process for divvying up vaccines to federal employees was so opaque, White House COVID-19 task force members suspected doses were being "siphoned" off the top. /3
Read 4 tweets
5 Feb
SCOOP: My latest @VanityFair investigation tells the inside story of how the #COVID19 vaccine rollout devolved into chaos: turf wars, infighting, a muzzled @CDCgov and ideological embrace of a hands-off fed gov't role. vanityfair.com/news/2021/02/h… /1
Gen. Perna focused intently on photo-op of "N-hour sequence," delivery trucks rolling from warehouse within 24 hours of @US_FDA authorization. In one tense meeting, his staff had to explain that CDC had a different metric for success: getting shots into arms. /2
Of the roughly dozen board meetings #OperationWarpSpeed held, only 1 dealt w logistics of vaccine administration. @CDCgov official @DrNancyM_CDC "warned and warned" of impending chaos, even as CDC advised that operational plans were "close hold. /3
Read 6 tweets
19 Jan
EXCLUSIVE: My new special report in @VanityFair: a deep dive into @US_FDA #COVID19 response. Agency besieged w/ product pitches funneled from Trump @WhiteHouse, based on new internal docs and dozens of exclusive interviews, including w/ @SteveFDA. vanityfair.com/news/2021/01/h… /1
A special White House email was created for "‘concierge service’ on these offers and requests," according to email sent by former deputy @WHNSC director Matthew Pottinger in March. /2
Through that email poured a "tsunami" of pitches for COVID diagnostics, including from @itsmarlamaples @TheJillKelley and ventilators backed by @IvankaTrump. @DrPeterLurie calls this special access "Outrageous." /3
Read 7 tweets
30 Jul 20
BREAKING: My latest @VanityFair story, a detailed investigation into how the White House secretly drafted, then abandoned, a plan to nationalize America's broken #COVID19 diagnostic testing system. vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/h… /1
The plan, reported for 1st time here, was killed amid shifting WH logic: “political folks believed that because [virus] was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy....” @ProjectLincoln/2
WH secretly procured 3.5 million Chinese-made diagnostic tests from UAE company. Tests, delivered to @UAEEmbassyUS, didn't work. The invoice simply lists client name as "WH". Without a legit gov't contract, invoice cannot be paid. @COVIDOversight @weareoversight /3
Read 4 tweets

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