In February of 2021, it was announced that Anthony Fauci — the United States government’s highest paid employee, who was also its number one promoter of the coronavirus scare and associated crackdown — was chosen to receive the big money Dan David Prize associated with the Tel Aviv University in Israel. I wrote then a detailed analysis regarding why there should be concerns about the legality of Fauci being able to receive this third-party granted payment that was admitted to be awarded because of his work as a US government employee at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Fauci being able to receive the Dan David Prize, as I explained, was suspect even if there were no evidence showing that the money would not just be landing in Fauci’s lap out of the blue. This month, that situation has radically changed due to the release of additional information by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) suggesting layer upon layer of chicanery orchestrated by Fauci while he was a US government employee to ensure he would obtain the Dan David Prize as well as other monetary awards from third parties.
A one-page analysis accompanying 135 pages of documents provided by Paul argues that there was much funny business associated with Fauci’s receipt of these monetary awards. The analysis states:
1. NIH’s number two official personally assisted in ensuring Dr. Fauci received a $900,000 prize. In early 2021, NIH Principal Deputy Director Dr. Lawrence Tabak was tracking at least eight awards for Dr. Fauci at once, telling him his goal was “to support you in the strongest possible way” and mapping out how to get the cash cleared. The largest by far was the $900,000 Dan David Award from a foundation affiliated with Tel Aviv University.
2. NIH’s leadership acted as Dr. Fauci’s advocates, not neutral gatekeepers. Dr. Tabak and NIH’s ethics lawyers argued Dr. Fauci’s case up two levels, to HHS counsel and the independent Office of Government Ethics for getting the prize money approved, even drafting an escalation to the HHS Chief of Staff that leaned on Fauci’s “visibility.” When NIH ethics officers told Dr. Tabak that Dr. Fauci could not accept an award, Dr. Tabak told NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins, “We went all out, and failed.” An NIH ethics official, Holli Jaffe, offered to “take the bullet” and break the news to Fauci, and noted the ethics counsel had been given “very specific orders” she felt she couldn’t deviate from.
3. Dr. Fauci told the foundation he would accept the prize before the ethics review was finished. On January 30, 2021, more than two months before he was given the green light from counsel, he wrote, “I told them (the Dan David Foundation) that I will accept the award,” citing a 2011 prior review and an assurance from “the Israeli person” that nothing had changed. Dr. Fauci’s ethics compliance on this appears to be a case of asking for forgiveness rather than permission.
4. Dr. Fauci asked his accountant how his prize would affect his taxes. In a March 2021 letter to his personal accountant, Dr. Fauci wrote that he would receive the Dan David Prize from Israel in May of that year, asking, “do we need to figure this in my estimated taxes for 2021?” By that point, he had already told the foundation he would accept the money and was planning how to keep it.
5. Dr. Fauci authored his own award nominations and had other scientists sign them. Dr. Fauci supplied the material and colleagues submitted it under their names. Recruiting Duke University’s Dr. Barton Haynes in 2018, Dr. Fauci wrote, “As usual, I will supply all of the material.” His office ran a similar operation for the 2022 John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science, with NIAID staff working to line up outside scientists to nominate him and Dr. Fauci’s own deputy suggesting names, and for the 2020 Dan David nomination, which his chief of staff, Dr. Greg Folkers, drafted and Dr. Fauci himself helped write.
6. The nominations were traded among elite scientists, with major cash prizes on both ends. Dr. Fauci nominated others for the same prize he later won, telling Dr. Haynes, “I nominated Zeke Emanuel… last year and he won.” The favors came back around: after Dr. Charles Dinarello nominated Dr. Fauci for the $900,000 Dan David Award, Dr. Dinarello asked Dr. Fauci to nominate him for the Shaw Prize, another seven-figure award, and Dr. Fauci agreed. The records raise the obvious question of a quid-pro-quo given the large amount of prize money at hand.
7. Staff treated the prize payout as a team win, and Fauci wasn’t the only one hoping to collect. When the approval came through, Fauci’s assistant wrote, “Congratulations….you’re rich!” and his chief of staff, Dr. Greg Folkers, said, “I want my 15%.” The prize money was wired that May, with his personal passport and banking details provided by NIH staff on government email. In the same round, NIH National Cancer Institute’s Dr. Steven Rosenberg also won a Dan David Prize, meaning two of NIH’s most prominent figures each pocketed roughly $900,000 from the same foreign institution in the same year.
With the new evidence and related allegations in hand, now seems like a good time for the US government to carry out an extensive review concerning all the third-party awards Fauci received, as well as concerning how widely corruption related to third-party awards has extended at NIH.
