EXCLUSIVE: Media Ran a Disinformation Campaign to Protect Fauci From Criticism Over Dog Torture
Last year, the Gateway Pundit and White Coat Waste broke the story that Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases spent $375,000 in taxpayer dollars to fund abusive experiments on dogs in Tunisia.
Two months after the story was published, the images of the beagle torture went viral. Fauci’s fan club in the media immediately sprung into action to do damage control for their COVID icon — in particular, Beth Reinhard and Dana Milbank of the Washington Post.
Fauci’s office got 3,600 calls in 36 hours. They quit answering his phone for two weeks.
— Beth Reinhard (@bethreinhard) November 19, 2021
The White Coat Waste Project had used government databases to uncover disturbing documents detailing how Fauci and the NIAID funded researchers in Tunisia to intentionally lock dogs’ heads in mesh cages and unleash infected sand flies so that the parasite-carrying insects could eat them alive.
The published study, which included the troubling photo that went viral, had originally listed funding from NIAID in its financial disclosure and the NIH’s database stated that it funded the Tunisian dog researchers.
Bizarrely, once the photo went viral, months after the original report, NIAID issued a statement denying that it funded the controversial experiment in which sedated dogs were locked in cages with sand flies. In its statement, NIH only admitted to funding an innocuous-sounding study in which “twelve dogs were immunized with the experimental vaccine…and then let out in an enclosed open space during the day….” The published journal article was even edited to say that NIAID “did not provide any funding for this research and any such claim was made in error.”
@washingtonpost reviewed 15 angry voice mails sent to Fauci, several refer to the false claim about his agency funding the trapped beagles study.
— Beth Reinhard (@bethreinhard) November 19, 2021
During their “debunking,” Reinhard had written to the author of the study saying she’s reporting on a “a massive disinformation campaign that is being waged against Anthony Fauci.” She was not looking to report on the story, or determine if it was true, she was looking to protect someone.
The email chain was also obtained by White Coat Waste as part of a FOIA request.
PRR 22-0384 Records by Cass Fairbanks
The Post uncritically ran the NIAID’s late denial and branded this reporter and White Coat Waste to be peddlers of disinformation. They asserted the photo and details of the study were part of “the right-wing disinformation machine and its crusade against Fauci.” These “serious journalists” did not consider conflicts of interest that should have raised suspicions about the denial and retraction of the funding statement.
WaPo’s Dana Milbank, Media Matters and the “fact checkers” jumped on the chance to cast doubt on the Fauci beagle story. They got the flimsy evidence they needed from a scientific journal. Turns out that journal is edited by an employee of Anthony Fauci. https://t.co/YIq2LzrFda
— Leighton Woodhouse (@lwoodhouse) November 19, 2021
Based on Reinhard and Milbank’s work in the Post, Politifact, USA Today, Snopes, FactCheck.org, Media Matters, Mic and others parroted the claim that NIAID didn’t fund the study.
Now, thanks to a FOIA request from White Coat Waste, we have obtained the NIAID-approved grant application which confirms that, contrary to its public statement and denial, the agency did indeed fund an experiment in which sedated dogs were placed in cages full of sand flies.
“Dogs will be anaesthetized by subcutaneous injection of 200 μI of ketamine (10 mg/ml) (Merial, Lyon, France) and for 2 hours will be placed in a cage containing between 15 to 30 females P. perniciosus.”
The documents also describe the outdoor experiment that NIAID admitted to funding, stating, “Dogs will be exposed to sand fly bites each night throughout the sandfly season to ensure transmission. Following exposure, dogs will be housed at the kennel and monitored for disease development by measuring a variety of clinical and laboratory parameters (e.g. weight loss, cachexia, hepatosplenomegaly and anemia…)”
The records also reveal that the project was “significantly delayed” because the U.S. State Department had concerns about the dog research in Tunisia.
“From Wuhan to Tunisia, Fauci and NIAID have blatantly misled taxpayers about the agency’s role in funding wasteful, cruel, and dangerous animal experiments,” Justin Goodman, Senior VP of Advocacy and Public Policy at White Coat Waste Project, told The Gateway Pundit. “Congress must hold NIAID accountable for wasting tax dollars, abusing animals, and lying about it.”
In 2016, White Coat Waste also exposed how Fauci’s NIH division was using tax dollars to buy beagle puppies and strapping capsules full of infected flies to their bare skin.
Beagles are often used for these tests because of their gentle nature, even towards those who harm them, as was the case in the Fauci-funded studies.
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