In a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing today, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) questioned Carrie D. Wolinetz, who served as Chief of Staff for former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins during the peak of COVID-19.
Senator Hawley pressed Wolinetz on her claim that censorship did not occur during her tenure at the NIH, specifically referring to questions around the origin of COVID-19. “You don’t believe censorship took place? What world are you living in?” Senator Hawley asked Wolinetz. “Tell that to the scientists who basically lost their credentials. Tell that to the people who were kicked off of social media and banned because they asked about a lab leak… The privilege is astounding.”
Senator Hawley also called out Wolinetz and her team of scientists formerly at the NIH for working to discredit the COVID-19 lab leak theory before even testing it as a hypothesis.
“Why was your office so intent on pushing to the public the idea that this could not possibly have been a lab issue?” he continued. “Is it because of the NIH’s role in funding gain-of-function research at the lab?”
Last month, Senator Hawley criticized professor and scientist Dr. Robert Garry for continuing to peddle propaganda about the origin of COVID-19.
Watch today’s full exchange here, or click on the picture above.
