The head of Twitter, Elon Musk, revealed that former employees of the social media company had a Slack channel titled "Fauci Fan Club" — in reference to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert.
Musk tweeted the claim in a thread that was highly critical of Fauci. He accused him of lying about so-called "gain-of-function" research that some suggest played a role in the pandemic.
"Despite these glaring issues, Twitter nonetheless had an internal Slack channel unironically called 'Fauci Fan Club,' " Musk tweeted late Tuesday. He did not go into detail on how many employees participated in the Slack channel.
Since buying Twitter, Musk has been eager to reveal the company's evident left-wing bias. On Tuesday, Musk responded to a tweet thread by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.
The tweets were linked to a Newsweek article titled "Fauci Was 'Untruthful' to Congress About Wuhan Lab Research, New Documents Appear to Show."
The story was from a September, 2021, article by The Intercept that found the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, headed by Fauci, provided funds for "gain-of-function research."
"Gains of function" is a process scientists utilize to study viruses, make them more pathogenic or transmissible, and then prevent future spreads.
The NIH funded a nongovernmental organization, EcoHealth Alliance, which conducted the research in China for bat-specific viruses infecting humans, according to The Intercept.
NIH scientists have denied these claims, but the controversy remains over whether the coronavirus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China.
Mainstream scientists have suggested it originated from a wet market in Wuhan, where exotic animals were sold. Still, experts are unsure whether it was a lab accident.
Since taking over Twitter, Musk has had fun releasing so-called "Twitter Files." Its latest by journalist David Zweig is titled "How Twitter rigged the COVID debate." In it, he accused the platform of "censoring info that was true but inconvenient to U.S. govt. policy" and of "discrediting doctors and other experts who disagreed."
Zweig cites records from the Biden administration to moderate or ban "anti-vaxxer" accounts.
In his thread, Musk included a May 2021 article from the National Review titled, "Fauci Argued Benefits of Gain-of-Function Research Outweighed Pandemic Risk in 2012 Paper."
Musk added, "Important to note that Fauci authored [a] 2012 paper arguing for gain-of-function research! Obama wisely put this on pause, but Fauci restarted it.
Last year, the Biden administration launched an investigation into the origins of COVID-19. The conclusions remain inconclusive. Republicans gaining control of the House in the midterm election may prompt a probe into the virus' origins.
Still, Fauci remains the head of controversy as a number of right-leaning individuals have blamed him for what they view as heavy-handed lockdown measures.
Earlier this month, Musk tweeted a call to prosecute Fauci. During the onset of the pandemic, Musk lashed out at California state officials for pushing his Tesla factory in the Bay Area to shut down.
The move has sparked his interest in relocating to Austin, Texas — a state that allowed leeway for businesses to operate during the lockdowns.
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