Fauci, NIAID Helped Fund Army Experiment With Aerosolized Ebola

Newly released records from a U.S. Senate investigation show that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) paid for and helped plan U.S. Army research in which vaccinated nonhuman primates were exposed to aerosolized Ebola virus.¹ The work took place while Anthony Fauci, MD directed the agency, a post he held for 38 years.²

When Dr. Fauci allegedly learned the details in 2016, after the study had already been completed and its results circulated to government officials and U.S. embassies, his documented response was not to stop the program or make the findings public, but rather to argue that the results should have been classified.³

The documents, which include entries from Fauci’s personal diary and internal government communications, were obtained as part of an investigation led by U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.⁴ The committee has been examining federal funding of high-risk biological research and how the government handled information about it.⁵

NIAID Funded Research Involving Aerosolized Ebola

The Army carried out the experiments at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Maryland, while NIAID provided funding and took part in designing them.⁶

A Senate fact sheet accompanying th8e documents said the Army tested four vaccines in groups of four monkeys, each exposed to an Ebola aerosol designed to drive the virus deep into the lungs instead of reproducing natural transmission. Nearly every exposed animal died.⁷

Ebola spreads through contact with an infected person’s blood or bodily fluids, not through the air. Although unlikely, Ebola is also considered a possible bioterrorism agent, and experiments like these are described as biodefense research.⁹

Ebola is classified as a Tier 1 select agent under the Federal Select Agent Program, a designation for pathogens whose intentional misuse carries the highest potential to produce mass casualties.¹⁰ Research with the most dangerous pathogens is conducted in biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) facilities, the highest containment level available, because infection is frequently fatal.¹¹

Fauci Claims Experiment “Never Should Have Been Done”

Despite being the director of the NIAID during the time the research was conducted, Fauci said he did not learn the details of the Army experiments until months after they were conducted in late 2015.¹² By then the results had reportedly reached the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and alarmed officials at U.S. embassies in West Africa,¹³ where Ebola vaccine trials were under way.¹⁴

Fauci wrote in his diary:

What idiots those guys at USAMRIID are. This should have been a classified experiment that never should have been done in the first place.¹⁵

He added that he would need to speak with the National Security Council (NSC) to explain why the work was, in his view, “an irrelevant experiment.”¹⁶

The vaccinated animals exposed to the aerosol showed greater inflammation than the unvaccinated ones, and Fauci noted that follow-up experiments were run to test whether the finding was genuine and meaningful.¹⁷

At the time, Ebola vaccine development had become an international priority following the 2014–2016 West African Ebola epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people.¹⁸ Experimental vaccines were being evaluated for potential use in countries including Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.¹⁹

The Army’s findings threatened to undermine confidence in those vaccines. According to Fauci, officials in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone were “going batshit” over fears that ineffective vaccines might be deployed in their countries. He described the aerosol experiments as relevant to biodefense, with little connection to naturally occurring outbreaks.²⁰

Fauci: “We may need to do a bit of damage control here”

Fauci did not initially know how far NIAID’s involvement in the Army work went, and once he learned of the experiments, he reached out to NIAID staff for answers.²¹

Fauci emailed a subordinate:

If someone does not tell me the truth and I find out they did not, then they are gone.²²

It appears that results from the studies had already been shared with government officials and vaccine manufacturers before Fauci was fully briefed. He expressed concern about that circulation and questioned why the experiments had not been treated as classified biodefense work.²³

The experiments were not considered gain-of-function research. The Senate documents reflect a scientific distinction that the studies tested infection routes rather than modifying the virus genetically.²⁴

Internal NIAID records included in the Senate document release show that at no point during the design or execution of the research had anyone at NIAID or the Army requested or considered classification.²⁵ After Fauci learned that his agency had funded and helped design the experiment, NIAID’s biodefense director wrote in an internal email, “We may need to a bit of damage control here.”²⁶

Despite Concerns About Safety, Risky Biodefense Research Program Continued

Days after writing that the experiment “never should have been done in the first place,” Fauci wrote in his diary that the research was “important for bio defense.”²⁷ NIAID’s deputy director instructed scientists only to pause further Ebola experiments “until a bit of dust settles (if it does),” and not to end the risky research program.²⁸ A researcher at Fort Detrick separately confirmed that despite the concerns for safety, plans were moving forward for a related coronavirus aerosol study.²⁹

The researcher wrote:

We will continue to make plans to initiate the CoV study as soon as the lights turn green… I will keep the rest off email.³⁰

Dr. Richard H. Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, criticized Fauci’s response, saying Fauci’s “main reaction to the study was that its existence and its results needed to be classified.”³¹

Senate Investigation Examines Risky Biological Research

Fauci appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in July as part of the investigation into federal oversight of high-risk biological research and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic,³² <³³ but invoked the Fifth Amendment right and refused to answer a single question.³⁴

Sen. Paul said:

Americans deserve to know what kind of risky research their taxpayer dollars are funding.³⁵

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