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Transcript segment

Baric Transcribed Interview (Redacted), p.31 · baric_ti:utt:00188

Page text: p.31 · original PDF

Date
2026-04-10 09:00 (day precision)
Type
transcript segment · interview
recipient
Christina Salazar, Harry Kazenoff, David T. Lambeth III, William Henderson, Clark Ervin, Jake Greenberg
speaker
Ralph S. Baric
No. They were aware that there were documents that existed. They didn't seem to have a copy of them, and that surprised me. So I immediately said, "I'll be glad to send you the copies," and the university did, so we did.

In context

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  1. 2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric open
    I don't remember that, as well. I can't remember the details of that, as well. All I can tell you is that the exemption was approved right before Christmas of 2014.
  2. 2026-04-10 09:00 Christina Salazar open
    Okay. And so back to the mid-February meeting, were they just like, did we review it and we were okay with it?
  3. 2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric open
    No. They knew that they had approved it. Again, I would've expected them to have the documents in the meeting, right. That would have made sense. They didn't have the documents, and I don't know why.
  4. 2026-04-10 09:00 Christina Salazar open
    And they didn't seem to be aware of documents?
  5. 2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric
    No. They were aware that there were documents that existed. They didn't seem to have a copy of them, and that surprised me. So I immediately said, "I'll be glad to send you the copies," and the university did, so we did.
  6. 2026-04-10 09:00 Christina Salazar open
    Good thing you guys had a copy. DC.Scheduling@LexitasLegal.com
  7. 2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric open
    Well, yeah, really.
  8. 2026-04-10 09:00 Christina Salazar open
    I mean, was the conversation, were they worried? What was the tone of it? I mean, we see -- and again, these have been FOIA'd -- there's a spur of sending out that paper, within hours, to multiple different people. Now, you know, a lot of the emails don't have commentary, but it's on February 1st. We know what else happened on February 1st.
  9. 2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric open
    Well, I think you need to put it in context. So in China there was a massive social media barrage of speculation that the 2015 virus was the cause of the pandemic. NIH had to become aware of that at some point, and they would immediately then be worried whether everything was done properly. They had to be. And it's five years back, so again, these are things that are not going to be at the top of anyone's mind. But at the same time, they're going to want to know was everything done properly. So yeah, I think naturally that they would be concerned, naturally they'd want to know, is that virus the cause of the pandemic or not? I mean, if they didn't ask those kinds of question, they would be really irresponsible.

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