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Transcript segment

Baric Transcribed Interview (Redacted), p.126 · baric_ti:utt:01076

Page text: p.126 · original PDF

Date
2026-04-10 09:00 (day precision)
Type
transcript segment · interview
recipient
Ralph S. Baric, Harry Kazenoff, David T. Lambeth III, William Henderson, Clark Ervin, Jake Greenberg
speaker
Christina Salazar
Okay.

In context

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  1. 2026-04-10 09:00 Christina Salazar open
    Okay.
  2. 2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric open
    The second example, which is the reason why I'm reluctant to talk about it here, because I do not want to be responsible as the one who releases it to the public. If you all choose to do that then you can accept the responsibility of that. Sometimes in science you come across findings that are potentially concerning. And so in this case, Fang Li had been doing studies using biochemical approaches to identify DC.Scheduling@LexitasLegal.com the most optimal receptor binding domain possible to grab either the human ACE2 receptor or the mouse ACE2 receptor. The thought in the field from him, as a biochemist, was that would be the most optimal and most dangerous form of virus. I disagreed with him, because in reality, biochemical interactions are, in essence, a bell-shaped curve. If they can't interact very well, the virus can't get in. If they react too well, that interaction can't come apart. So the virus can't get in, and the virus, as it tries to release, gets caught up in what's called a dominant negative effect, and it will prevent virus replication. And the reason I knew this is I had overexpressed receptors before, with mouse hepatitis virus. And because there was so much receptor there, the virus, as it got in, it replicated fine, but when it came out all the spikes were stripped off of the particle. So if the interaction is too great it kills the virus. Anyone who might want to do nefarious work in science, wanted to create something, is going to think that the most efficient interaction is where you want to go. So I tested that hypothesis and showed that I was right, that the super-binding things were just as deleterious as the really poor-binding ones. I subsequently told NIH and destroyed those viruses. I have never told anyone, and I would DC.Scheduling@LexitasLegal.com recommend that this committee not release that, because then you will be responsible for telling terrorists what to do.
  3. 2026-04-10 09:00 Christina Salazar open
    Are you aware of ?
  4. 2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric open
    That's a shock to me. No, I was not.
  5. 2026-04-10 09:00 Christina Salazar
    Okay.
  6. 2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric open
    Yeah. Again, this would have been -- there would never have been any sharing of data with him. It would have been uncommon. In fact, it was surprising to me that about a month ago he actually raised the topic with me, "Do you think maybe that if we had super, high-affinity binding that might not be good?" I just said I didn't -- yeah, so.
  7. 2026-04-10 09:00 Christina Salazar open
    And those are the only two?
  8. 2026-04-10 09:00 Ralph S. Baric open
    Yeah, those are the two examples.
  9. 2026-04-10 09:00 William Henderson open
    What was the time frame on that second example?

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