---
type: Person
title: Ralph S. Baric
description: "Professor of Epidemiology, UNC Chapel Hill"
tags:
  - person
  - unc
organization: unc
document_count: 1162
first_seen: "2013-07-29T17:51:48"
last_seen: "2026-04-10T09:00:00"
aliases:
  - Baric
  - R. Baric
  - Ralph Baric
  - Ralph S Baric
  - Ralph S. Baric
  - rbaric@email.unc.edu
sources:
  - { id: baric_ti, resource: /sources/baric-ti.md, title: Baric Transcribed Interview (Redacted), author: "process:senate-hsgac-release", last_modified: 2026-07-23 }
  - { id: letter_dni, resource: /sources/letter-dni.md, title: Chairman Paul Letter to DNI Gabbard, author: "process:senate-hsgac-release", last_modified: 2025-10-30 }
  - { id: monkeypox_release, resource: /sources/monkeypox-release.md, title: NIH Monkeypox Smuggling Release, author: "process:senate-hsgac-release", last_modified: 2026-06-05 }
generated: { by: randpaul-corpus-pipeline/1.0, at: "2026-08-01T12:42:27Z" }
status: stable
---

Professor of Epidemiology, UNC Chapel Hill

# Activity

- **Documents:** 1162 (sent/authored 561, received 601)
- **Active:** 2013-07-29 to 2026-04-10
- **Organization:** [unc](/organizations/unc.md)
- **Appears as:** `Baric`, `R. Baric`, `Ralph Baric`, `Ralph S Baric`, `Ralph S. Baric`, `rbaric@email.unc.edu`

# Correspondents

| Person | Messages | First | Last |
|---|---:|---|---|
| [Christina Salazar](/people/christina-salazar.md) | 1104 | 2026-04-10 | 2026-04-10 |
| [David T. Lambeth III](/people/david-t-lambeth-iii.md) | 574 | 2026-04-10 | 2026-04-10 |
| [Harry Kazenoff](/people/harry-kazenoff.md) | 574 | 2026-04-10 | 2026-04-10 |
| [William Henderson](/people/william-henderson.md) | 571 | 2026-04-10 | 2026-04-10 |
| [Clark Ervin](/people/clark-ervin.md) | 568 | 2026-04-10 | 2026-04-10 |
| [Jake Greenberg](/people/jake-greenberg.md) | 560 | 2026-04-10 | 2026-04-10 |
| Amy C Sims | 2 | 2013-07-29 | 2013-08-23 |
| Fang Li HR | 1 | 2018-10-24 | 2018-10-24 |

# Topics

* [Intelligence community assessments](/topics/intelligence-community.md) - 39 documents
* [Gain-of-function research](/topics/gain-of-function.md) - 33 documents
* [Vaccines](/topics/vaccines.md) - 29 documents
* [Wuhan Institute of Virology collaboration](/topics/wiv-collaboration.md) - 27 documents
* [Furin cleavage site and molecular features](/topics/molecular-features.md) - 19 documents
* [Natural origin / zoonotic spillover](/topics/natural-origin.md) - 18 documents
* [Proximal Origin paper](/topics/proximal-origin.md) - 13 documents
* [EcoHealth Alliance funding and grants](/topics/ecohealth-funding.md) - 12 documents
* [Lab-leak / accidental release hypothesis](/topics/lab-leak-origin.md) - 9 documents
* [Congressional oversight](/topics/congressional-oversight.md) - 8 documents

# Statement timeline

What this person is recorded saying, in date order, quoted verbatim with page citations.

* **2020-01-29** ([intelligence_community](/topics/intelligence-community.md), asserts): "To ce Subject: RE: B Group Next Week Attachments: Baric BSEG Jan 2020.pptx My presentation a eel Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2020 3:16 PM -- Ci Subject: Re: B Group Next Week Hi Ralph, The Sponsor will be excited to hear that you are willing to lead this…" [^letter_dni]
* **2026-04-10** ([congressional_oversight](/topics/congressional-oversight.md), asserts): "Nothing comes to mind, but if you have questions on that testimony I'll be glad to give you my current thinking." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([congressional_oversight](/topics/congressional-oversight.md), asserts): "It's in the testimony, I think, in the House." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([vaccines](/topics/vaccines.md), asserts): "We had an mRNA vaccine for MERS coronavirus that had been tested in mice, both young and DC.Scheduling@LexitasLegal.com old mice, and it was extremely effective." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([vaccines](/topics/vaccines.md), asserts): "I think that data was immediately incorporated into the discussions, that I was not part of, but discussions at the Federal level, in terms of prioritizing which vaccines might go forward." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([vaccines](/topics/vaccines.md), asserts): "So the reason, I think, that we were particularly so excited about that data is that most of the vaccines that I have tested against coronaviruses, epidemic or pandemic, not pandemic, epidemic coronaviruses like the original SARS 2003 strain, or the MERS…" [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([vaccines](/topics/vaccines.md), asserts): "But when you took them into aged animals, where the vaccines are less affected by about tenfold, the vaccines would fail." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([vaccines](/topics/vaccines.md), asserts): "And the beauty about the VRC mRNA vaccine was that the neutralizing titers in the immune responses were as effective in the old animals as the young animals, so they were fully protected." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([vaccines](/topics/vaccines.md), asserts): "Whether they actually manufactured the vaccine that was put in the animals or not, or whether NIH made that vaccine and put it in, I don't know." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([vaccines](/topics/vaccines.md), asserts): "In 2003, the NIH had purchased two, or the Federal Government had purchased two $20 million killed vaccines to test against SARS coronavirus." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([vaccines](/topics/vaccines.md), asserts): "So killed vaccines are pretty commonly used in humans." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([treatments](/topics/treatments.md), asserts): "We did a head-to-head comparison of remdesivir versus this drug, and had submitted it to Nature Communications for publication." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([proximal_origin](/topics/proximal-origin.md), asserts): "We had common interests, but we didn't effectively start working together until later in 2014, on some of the work on the 2015 paper, that was published in Nature Medicine." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([awards_honoraria](/topics/awards-honoraria.md), asserts): "Ian Lipkin, you'd have to look at his CV, but I believe he received a medal from China for his efforts in the original 2003 SARS coronavirus outbreak, helping them bring it under control." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([wiv_collaboration](/topics/wiv-collaboration.md), asserts): "He told me he'd worked extensively with people in China during the 20- -- I didn't ask him details DC.Scheduling@LexitasLegal.com about whether it was with Wuhan Institute of Virology or not." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([wiv_collaboration](/topics/wiv-collaboration.md), asserts): "She was able to culture WIV1 in cell culture, and they published a paper in Nature on that." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([wiv_collaboration](/topics/wiv-collaboration.md), asserts): "And they showed that WIV1 could infect and use human H2 receptors." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([foia_transparency](/topics/foia-transparency.md), asserts): "I know those emails have been FOIA'd multiple times, and it says exactly when I was supposed to meet them and where." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([congressional_oversight](/topics/congressional-oversight.md), asserts): "I don't recall that part being in the House, so I think the House testimony is actually accurate." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([gain_of_function](/topics/gain-of-function.md), asserts): "Ultimately, they got to, I think, what they really wanted to talk about was gain-of-function related experiments, or I think it should be potential gain-of-function related experiments, that were associated with this 2015 and 2016 paper." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([gain_of_function](/topics/gain-of-function.md), asserts): "I was a little surprised that they didn't seem to have the paperwork that was involved in my presentation on why I thought this might be more of a loss-of-function than a gain-of-function phenotype." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([intelligence_community](/topics/intelligence-community.md), asserts): "It would be a specialized series of documents associated with P3CO review." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([gain_of_function](/topics/gain-of-function.md), asserts): "One way was that if a grant was submitted that had the potential for gain-of-function research it would be reviewed before they funded it." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([intelligence_community](/topics/intelligence-community.md), asserts): "So in China there was a massive social media barrage of speculation that the 2015 virus was the cause of the pandemic." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([intelligence_community](/topics/intelligence-community.md), asserts): "Initially it came from the Chinese, social media speculation about what was the cause of the pandemic." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([intelligence_community](/topics/intelligence-community.md), asserts): "So there's no way it could ever be associated with the emergence of this virus." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([gain_of_function](/topics/gain-of-function.md), asserts): "I sort of told them why we felt that the data didn't demonstrate a gain-of-function phenotype, and that was because there was no change or increased replication of the virus in human DC.Scheduling@LexitasLegal.com cells." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([gain_of_function](/topics/gain-of-function.md), asserts): "So the details of the discussion about what's gain-of-function or what's not is dependent on NIH." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([gain_of_function](/topics/gain-of-function.md), asserts): "All I know is that the Trump administration has formed a committee to come up with final policy recommendations for what is gain-of-function and what's not." [^baric_ti]
* **2026-04-10** ([natural_origin](/topics/natural-origin.md), asserts): "Well, that's natural origin process that either occurs through nature or natural evolutionary processes that might occur in cell cultures." [^baric_ti]

# Sources

[^baric_ti]: [baric_ti](/sources/baric-ti.md)
[^letter_dni]: [letter_dni](/sources/letter-dni.md)
[^monkeypox_release]: [monkeypox_release](/sources/monkeypox-release.md)