NIH itself has declared it's now "undisputed" that the Wuhan Institute of Virology likely violated protocols on biosafety, "which possibly did lead..to..unacceptable outcomes."

In the summer of 2021 , Americans saw something unusual: Dr. Anthony Fauci on tilt.

"Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly. And I want to say that officially," said the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director. "I totally resent the lie you are now propagating."

Fauci's comments were made during one of his testier exchanges with Rand Paul , the Kentucky senator whom he had sparred with in a series of congressional hearings on the National Institutes of Health's funding of risky "gain-of-function" research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The truth would emerge slowly over the next two years.

In a pair of letters sent to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in October 2021, NIH conceded that funding provided to the nonprofit organization EcoHealth Alliance had indeed resulted in an "unexpected result": An enhanced coronavirus from bats that had been created through a partnership with the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Francis Collins, then the director of NIH, which oversees NIAID, claimed the letters were sent "to set the record straight" on the controversial research. In reality, NIH sent the letters a month after the Intercept published documents revealing NIH had funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab.

The Fauci-Paul feud seems like history today. Fauci is no longer the director of NIAID and no longer on TV every day. Perhaps that's why new evidence showing that Paul's instincts were correct has garnered so little attention.