used personal emails to communicate and circumvent freedom of information laws. so i just had a couple questions about that. dr. fauci, did you delete any emails or records related to the wuhan labor origins of the virus? no, i did not. okay. dr. morens said in a may 2021 email he indicated that he was connecting people to you in a quote secret back channel. do you know what he was referring to? i don t have any idea what he is talking about. there is no back channel at niaid. he also said in another email there is no worry about freedom of information act. i can send stuff to tony on his private email. did you communicate with anyone relating to anything regarding nih or with dr. morens on a private email? i don t do government business on my private email.
i want to thank you, dr. fauci, for your voluntary testimony today and for so much grace in your 14 hours of testimony. and i again want to thank you for your service and your patience. it is truly remarkable. because it bears repeating, let me just remind everyone that after 15 months, my republican colleagues extreme allegations against you remain unsubstantiated. unsubstantiated. and now during your two-day close had door interview in january you discussed a number of topics regarding the public health response to covid-19, pandemic, some that we have touched on briefly but i want to dive in a little bit deeper here. for example, you discussed both then and here with congresswoman castor the recommendation we
your commitment not just to science, but to advancing the greater good. and i know that this isn t a topic you enjoy discussion and i m sorry i will have to ask you about it. i think the american people need to know what we are doing to those who are serving the common good in public health. i think it s important to make clear the harms that you and your loved ones have suffered because of these deeply irresponsible accusations. because you know what? you are human just like the rest of us. so dr. fauci, can you please share with us the nature of the threats you have received since the start of the covid-19 pandemic? yes. there have been everything from harassments by emails, texts, letters of myself, my wife, my three daughters.
intimidation, hate speech, threats of violence and death threats that their members faced during the pandemic. i will ask to insert the letter but i wanted to make the point before i close, mr. chairman, as many as 40% of public health workers have been bullied, threatened, or harassed. i think we all need to take that on as a public health issue and ask to enter the letter into the record and yield back. without objection. now recognize ms. lesco from arizona. dr. fauci, did the national institute of health fund the potentially dangerous enhanced potential pandemic pathogens gain of function resurge at the wuhan institute of virology? i would not characterize it the way you did. the national institutes of health, through a sub award to the wuhan institute of virology,
funded research on the surveillance of and the possibility of emerging infections. i would not characterize it as dangerous gain-of-function research. i have already testified to that effect a couple of times. you are saying no, correct? in his may 16th i m saying no because i ve said that multiple times including the transcribed interview. in the may 16, the nih director said i can tell you that the failure of the wuhan institute of virology to provide us with the data that we requested and the lab notebooks that we requested certainly impeded our ability to understand what was really going on with the experiments that we ve been discussing this morning. my question to you, dr. fauci, if the nih didn t inspect the wuhan institute of virology and nih didn t receive the lab books