Slack / Private Message Drop — page 1063

[Eddie Holmes] We'll never ever control what the GOP thinks [2022-01-14 14:08:30] [Kristian Andersen] No, we can't control what the GOP thinks - however, once they take the house, Daszak, Bob, myself, and others will be subpoenaed because they clearly want all this information. [2022-01-14 14:09:09] [Andrew Rambaut] My feeling is that this is basically just an attack on Fauci (to a lesser extent, Collins). Once they have gone as far as they want with that they will move on. I don't really think the GOP cares about what really happened. [2022-01-14 14:10:45] [Kristian Andersen] Correct - but they use us as a way to get at Fauci. "See how all these scientists are lying", "Covering up with/for Fauci", etc, etc. That's where the documents come in - because they'll do _exactly_ what they just did with Bob's emails - take it completely out of context to create a narrative. The same will happen with those two drafts. [2022-01-14 14:15:52] [Andrew Rambaut] Reply: > Andrew - thanks. I should have been more specific: what I mean is that both Fauci and Collins were aware that NIH funds had been subawarded to the WIV in the past for certain types of research. > But you make a good point. It was not them specifically. So I will leave it there. [2022-01-14 14:19:50] [Kristian Andersen] How the fuck are you supposed to know that...? She might want to ask them instead... I have no way of knowing, but I highly doubt they knew - plus, it was never brought up. Not on the call, not in emails with us. [2022-01-14 14:21:09] [Kristian Andersen] It's sad to see the self destruction brought on by conspiracy theories - literally 99% of news on COVID-19 is either conspiracy theory or articles trying to counter conspiracy theories. [2022-01-14 14:38:52] [Eddie Holmes] And we won't change that. The key email is the one from Ron I think. No way he'll agree to release that. [2022-01-14 14:43:13] [Kristian Andersen] They have that email in full too - but obviously they only released the part where he talked about "conspiracy theories" because the rest of the email very much goes against their narrative. I _do_ hope Ron will release "Ron's notes" at some point. [2022-01-14 14:51:24] [Eddie Holmes] I think we get all the emails ready but hold-off doing anything until it becomes critical. To me, this is the nuclear option and it has serious downstream consequences (because it gives precedent for ALL other emails to be released) so I really don't want to do it. And by critical I don't mean DRASTIC or USRTK. They are small fry and easy to counter, and whatever we release they would pick-and-choose what they want. I honestly couldn't give a fuck about DRASTIC. I don't think drafts of the paper are the issue. It's what we were told in the teleconference.