Rep. Roy demands answers on CCP-linked money going to NIH employees

Last week, Representative Chip Roy (TX-21) led 14 House Republicans in demanding answers from the acting director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) regarding payments to NIH employees — including Dr. Anthony Fauci — from companies including some that profited massively from the COVID-19 pandemic response and others that are directly connected to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The lawmakers’ letter came shortly after an Open The Books report revealed that NIH employees took $325 million in payments from 2,019 separate companies worldwide, including 265 payments from Pfizer entities and 207 payments from Moderna.

The lawmakers said,“These payments raise not only national security concerns but deepen concerns regarding the potential undue influence massive healthcare companies may have over public health agencies engaged in developing and regulating products and responding to public health threats — like COVID-19.”

"Of particular concern,” the letter continues,“companies that were intimately involved with — and stood to financially gain from — the federal government’s COVID-19 response, such as Moderna, Pfizer, BioNTech US, and Johnson & Johnson, provided a number of payments to NIH scientists.”

"It should also be noted that Dr. Fauci, despite being the highest-paid employee in the federal government, hauled in at least 37 third-party payments from companies, while Dr. Collins received at least 21 third-party payments.”

 “COVID-19 aside, the report raises general national security concerns regarding our public health apparatus’ financial ties to our geopolitical adversaries, including the CCP and companies based in Russia,” the letter concludes.

Co-signers of the letter include Representatives Lance Gooden (TX-5), Anna Paulina Luna (FL-13), Harriet Hageman (WY-AL), Ralph Norman (SC-5), Eli Crane (AZ-2), Mary Miller (IL-15), Debbie Lesko (AZ-8), Josh Brecheen (OK-2), Ben Cline (VA-6), Roger Williams (TX-25), Paul Gosar (AZ-9), Bob Good (VA-5), Daniel Webster (FL-11), and Andrew Clyde (GA-9).

Read the full letter here.