Transcript segment

Baric Transcribed Interview (Redacted), pp.69-70 · baric_ti:utt:00593

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

The process is, as described to me when I first became a member, very esoteric and difficult to understand. But each section in the National Academy will open up a -- begin the process of thinking about new members to induct into the National Academy for their section. And members will nominate individuals. Those individuals will be presented to that section, in terms of a five-minute review of what they did, why it's significant, and where science would be should they not have existed. So you're looking for people who made DC.Scheduling@LexitasLegal.com significant contributions to science. Then they do straw polls to down-select the most heavily supported individuals. Those are then taken to a larger committee and presented to the entire Academy from all the different sections. That group then ultimately makes the final list for voting, and then they do voting the beginning of April. Like the voting will probably end in the next few days, if it hasn't already ended for this next year's nominees that are being inducted. And then they're announced probably sometime within the next week or two, depending on the Academy. That's the process.

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2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric open

It's not uncommon for both the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine to ask experts to participate in developing documents.
2026-04-10 09:00 Christina Salazar open

So what's the difference between being an inducted member versus being an expert that's asked --
2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric open

Well, an inducted member has to go through the review process by formal members and then voted on by the entire Academy about whether they should be included in that honorary group or not.
2026-04-10 09:00 Christina Salazar open

And what does that mean? Are there privileges that are --
2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric

The process is, as described to me when I first became a member, very esoteric and difficult to understand. But each section in the National Academy will open up a -- begin the process of thinking about new members to induct into the National Academy for their section. And members will nominate individuals. Those individuals will be presented to that section, in terms of a five-minute review of what they did, why it's significant, and where science would be should they not have existed. So you're looking for people who made DC.Scheduling@LexitasLegal.com significant contributions to science. Then they do straw polls to down-select the most heavily supported individuals. Those are then taken to a larger committee and presented to the entire Academy from all the different sections. That group then ultimately makes the final list for voting, and then they do voting the beginning of April. Like the voting will probably end in the next few days, if it hasn't already ended for this next year's nominees that are being inducted. And then they're announced probably sometime within the next week or two, depending on the Academy. That's the process.
2026-04-10 09:00 Christina Salazar open

And so your understanding is that was convened by NIH?
2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric open

No. You're confusing induction into the National Academy of Sciences with sponsored research that the National Academy does for Federal institutions. So the NIH wanted the National Academy to form a group that would review the COVID outbreak. That group will include National Academy members as well as individuals who are not National Academy member but knowledgeable experts in the field.
2026-04-10 09:00 Christina Salazar open

I guess my question is, why was NIH convening this group? Because the same members, right, Dr. Fauci, Francis Collins were in other groups.
2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric open

I think, again, you need to talk to the DC.Scheduling@LexitasLegal.com National Institute of Health, because they're the ones who arranged for this group to be formed through the National Academy and the process involved. Typically, the group that is asking the National Academy to respond to a request from an outside group, people from that outside group will explain on the first day of the meeting what the topic is and why they're interested in it, and that sort of thing.

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