The United States’ Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) has suspended retired scientist Ralph Baric and initiated proceedings to debar him from participating in federal government procurement and nonprocurement programmes.

It has long been suspected that Baric, who was a prominent coronavirus researcher, played a pivotal role in the gain-of-function research that may have been the source of SARS-CoV-2, and hence Covid-19.

Baric (pictured left) collaborated heavily with scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China, and in particular with senior researcher at the WIV Shi Zhengli, with whom he was one of the co-authors of a paper published in Nature Medicine in November 2015 entitled ‘A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence’.

The authors wrote: “Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone.”

Experiments on pathogenesis were conducted in Baric’s laboratory.

Baric sent transgenic mice with human receptors to the WIV. He was also involved in the DEFUSE (Defusing the Threat of Bat-borne Coronaviruses) grant proposal, which some scientists have described as a blueprint for SARS-CoV-2. The proposal was submitted to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the US in March 2018.

DEFUSE was not funded, but it has been suggested that work may well have gone ahead on the project nevertheless.

While the investigative spotlight has been on the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Anthony Fauci, Shi Zhengli, and the former director of the EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), Peter Daszak, independent investigators like the DRASTIC group have been pushing for answers from Ralph Baric about his gain-of-function research.

Fauci is accused of influencing and manipulating Intelligence Community assessments about Covid-19, and of lying to Congress.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) stated that recently documents exposed how Fauci, “worked with politicized career leadership in the Intelligence Community (IC) to suppress the truth about his actions, the virus’ lab-leak origins, and his role in directing US funding for this dangerous research that caused immeasurable harm and countless lost lives”.

A raft of documents were released by the outgoing Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, on June 18.

In May 2024, the EcoHealth Alliance was suspended from participating in US federal government procurement and nonprocurement. The HHS formally debarred Daszak and the EHA for five years in January 2025.

The EHA terminated Daszak’s employment in the organisation as of January 6, 2025.

Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, James Comer, said: “EcoHealth routinely ignored government oversight requests, failed to report dangerous gain-of-function experiments conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and produced a required research report two years late.”

While the main focus of investigations about a possible laboratory origin of SARS-CoV-2 has been the WIV, DRASTIC and others want to know more about what went on at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill), where Baric worked for decades. Baric retired from UNC-Chapel Hill on June 1, 2026.

Suspension and Debarment Official and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisitions at the HSS, Jennifer D. Johnson, has written to Baric stating: “The information in the ARM [Action Referral Memorandum] indicates that you lack the present responsibility to participate in Federal procurement and nonprocurement programmes.”

Johnson added: “It is important to note that suspension is a temporary action, used where immediate action is necessary to protect the integrity of United States Federal Government procurement and nonprocurement activities.”

She said: “As stated in the information in the record, the NIH found that, based on his own statements and published research, Dr. Ralph Baric was engaged in GoF research that was subject to the October 17, 2014, U.S. Government funding pause and NIH Notice Number: NOT-OD-15-011, Funding Pause for Certain Types of Gain-of-Function Research Projects to that effect, and continued to participate in in GoF research even after being notified of this by the NIH.

“Also, the NIH found that Dr. Ralph Baric was not forthcoming surrounding his Wellcome Trust grant in documents submitted to the NIH. Furthermore, as established in the information in the record, Dr. Ralph Baric is associated with multiple active NIH-funded grant awards.

“While GoF research can help scientists understand diseases, it can also be extremely dangerous and introduce serious risks, with the potential to cause disease by enhancing its pathogenicity or increasing its transmissibility.

“If left unrestricted, its effects can include widespread mortality, an impaired public health system, disrupted American livelihoods, and diminished economic and national security. No matter how many safety precautions are taken, there is always a chance that a never-before-seen virus can escape and trigger an outbreak, with the potential to significantly endanger the lives of American citizens.”

In an article in ‘Science’, Jon Cohen quotes Baric as saying the HHS’s debarment accusations are “bullshit” and that he would appeal against debarment.

Whistleblower revelations

Senior CIA operations officer James Erdman III told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on May 13 this year that Fauci’s role in a cover-up was intentional.

“Dr Fauci influenced the analytical process and findings by leveraging his position to ensure the IC [intelligence community] consulted with a conflicted list of curated subject-matter experts, public health officials, and scientists,” Erdman said.

“This included some of the authors of the paper ‘The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2’ and other public health experts who had been in his [Fauci’s] orbit for the last twenty-plus years.”

The CIA didn’t comply with lawful oversight during the Director’s Initiatives Group’s (DIG’s) investigation, analytical CIA standards were violated, and the CIA illegally monitored the computer and phone usage of DIG personnel, their investigations, and contact with whistleblowers, Erdman said.

Pressure to indict Fauci

In June, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chairman Rand Paul issued a subpoena requiring Fauci to testify publicly before his committee this month.

Fauci was the US president’s chief medical adviser from 2021 to 2022 and the director of NIAID from 1984 to 2022. There have been repeated calls for his indictment, but, on January 19, 2025, just before his presidency ended, Joe Biden issued a pre-emptive pardon to Fauci.

This was a full and unconditional pardon “for any offenses against the United States” that Fauci may have committed or taken part in from January 1, 2014, to the date of the pardon, “arising from or in any manner related to his service as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force or the White House COVID-19 Response Team, or as Chief Medical Advisor to the President”.

Paul, who has been in numerous head-to-head confrontations with Fauci in Congress, has said he thinks it is worth challenging the pardon.

“I’ve been arguing with the Trump DOJ that he [Fauci} should have been indicted,” Paul said in an interview after the May 13 Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee meeting.

“This week passes the statute of limitations for his testimony with me the first time, but he testified a month or two later and said the same thing, that he never funded gain-of-function research.

“I think he’s still liable for that, but it’s also within the statute of limitations for destroying records and advising others to destroy records. We have evidence of that as well.”

Paul noted that such a pardon had never been challenged in court. This, he said, was a case in which the pardon was given for a ten-year period of time with no crime specified.

“It’s kind of hard to imagine a pardon so broad that encompasses any crime, so I think it could be challenged in court.” he said.

Paul said he had recommended such action to the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ), which, he said, ignored his recommendation, and to the Trump DOJ, which had also largely ignored the recommendation.

Morens indictment

Calls for Fauci’s indictment increased after the indictment of NIAID employee David M. Morens on April 28 this year for his alleged role in a scheme to evade Freedom of Information Act requests related to Covid-19 research grants.

Morens is charged with conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal, or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting.

He served as a senior adviser in NIAID’s Office of the Director from 2006 to 2022.

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