AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool
This is part two of an article series detailing Dr. Fauci’s funding of Dual-Use Research of Concern (DURC) and Gain-of-function research through the NIH and NIAID. Part I can be found here.
In the early part of 2003, doctors around the world became baffled by thousands of cases of people with flu-like symptoms and pneumonia. Originally beginning in the Hong Kong region and then spreading around the world, this mystery illness was killing people faster than they could be diagnosed. When American businessman Johnny Chen became ill on a flight to Singapore, the plane diverted to Hanoi in Vietnam to rush Chen to the hospital. There, doctors were unable to stop the progression of Chen’s symptoms, and within hours of his arrival, Chen was dead. Over the course of the next several days, nearly 40 people would become ill at that hospital with 7 of those people dying from this new mysterious disease. That disease went on to infect people all over the world. China was among the worst hit, with over 5,000 cases and 318 deaths, followed by Canada and the US, with over 300 cases and 30 deaths.