Baric Transcribed Interview (Redacted) — page 111

DC.Scheduling@LexitasLegal.com that it is unlikely that the lab leak hypothesis will go away because the safety procedures at the WIV, and I cited their paper where they worked with viruses at BSL-2. MS. SALAZAR: Have you ever done any gain-of-function work for DARPA? DR. BARIC: For DARPA? No. MS. SALAZAR: For DoD? DR. BARIC: No. MS. SALAZAR: For any other Federal agency? DR. BARIC: Besides the NIH? I mean, technically, the work that we did with MERS, where we were given a waiver, as far as I know it was never really reviewed for GOF. It decided that it was in the national interest to develop a mouse model so that countermeasures could be developed against MERS. The virus has a 35 percent mortality rate. It could transmit to people, and it could transmit through asymptomatic spread. So there's a threat potential there. I think NIH made the right call in that case, that you develop the appropriate reagents so that you can move countermeasures forward to protect the public. MS. SALAZAR: Okay. So have you ever done gain-of22 function research under any other federally funded grant? DR. BARIC: No. MS. SALAZAR: Have you ever, you know, created a virus or provided sequences or done something under a contract