25/07/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 25/07/2024 20:30
Washington, D.C. - In a new letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Monica Bertagnolli, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Subcommittee on Health Chair Brett Guthrie (R-KY), and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chair Morgan Griffith (R-VA) requested documents and transcribed interviews related to an approved MPVX experiment.
The letter comes after the Committee released an interim staff reporton the experiment as well as an NIH reform framework. It notes that a failure to produce the requested documents by August 8, 2024, may lead to issuance of a subpoena to compel compliance. HHS and the NIH continue to withhold critical documents requested by the Committee last year.
KEY EXCERPT:
"For nearly a year and a half, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the NIH, and NIAID misled the Committee. Both HHS and the NIH told us a risky MPXV research proposal at the NIAID had not been "'formally proposed' or 'planned' when in fact this project was submitted and received approval before the NIH's Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) on June 30, 2015, as documented in written meeting minutes. The misleading statements were included in the following communications to the Committee:
"This deception is unacceptable and has led the Committee to conclude that NIAID cannot be trusted to oversee its own research of pathogens or determine whether an experiment poses enhanced risks of a potential pandemic or other serious public health outbreak."
[...]
"NIAID's lack of candor to this point suggests that it cannot be trusted to oversee the research projects that it funds. Therefore, this Committee will explore policy options to address this inherent conflict of interest and lack of transparency."
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:
CLICK HERE to read the letter.