Dr. Anthony Fauci privately sounded the alarm when he learned the U.S. Army had conducted an experiment a decade ago that aerosolized the lethal Ebola virus, which is not normally transmitted by air, and then shared the results publicly amid an ongoing outbreak in Africa, according to diary entries obtained by Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul.
The then-top scientist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease was particularly concerned in 2016 that the Army medical research arm’s experiment seemed to show that exposure to aerosolized Ebola caused more damaging effects in subjects that had been vaccinated. This was almost four years before he championed shutting down the U.S. economy and social life over the COVID-19 virus outbreak.
Fauci wrote he believed such research should be kept secret, preferably classified, so that it didn’t undermine public confidence in vaccination in the African countries suffering an outbreak of the virus.
“What idiots those guys at USAMRIID [U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases] are,” Fauci wrote in a March 2016 diary entry. “This should have been a classified experiment that never should have been done in the first place.”
He added, “Now I have to speak with the NSC [National Security Council] from the SKIF [sic] tomorrow to pick up the doo-doo and explain why this is an irrelevant experiment.” Fauci was likely referring to a “SCIF” which is a room designed to prevent leaked electronic communications.
The entry is the latest evidence to chronicle how widespread dangerous U.S. research on viruses has become, following revelations earlier this year from the Director of National Intelligence that the U.S. has funded scores of pathogen labs across the globe, including in war zones.
President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order mostly banning gain-of-function research that enhances viruses to make them more deadly to humans.
Paul told Just the News he believed the new diary entries reveal an effort by the federal government to hide dangerous research rather than stop it.
“These records show NIAID was funding risky research with the Defense Department, and when the results turned problematic, Dr. Fauci argued they should have been classified,” Paul said.”The email he sent demanding answers went to his longtime special assistant, who has since declined to answer the Committee’s questions.
“Americans deserve to know what kind of risky research their taxpayer dollars are funding. It is clear additional oversight is needed into what Dr. Fauci’s institute was paying for long before COVID,” he added. “This is exactly why Congress should pass the Risky Research Review Act. Under my bill, an independent board of outside scientists would have to review research like this before a single taxpayer dollar went out the door.“
At the time of the Ebola experiment, the United States was planning to deploy vaccines to West Africa to address the ongoing Ebola outbreaks there. Fauci noted that African officials from Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone were “going batshit” because they were concerned the U.S. would deploy ineffective vaccines in their countries.
Fauci’s diary and communications were obtained by Paul as part of his committee’s ongoing investigation into COVID-19 origins, dangerous viral research and alleged cover-ups. The latest memos, which the senator plans to release on Monday, were shared with Just the News.
You can read the latest release below:
2026.09.28_FINAL_SRP EBOLA DOC RELEASE.pdf
