USAID appears Innocent

Elon Musk's arrogance is not

TL;DR - Elon Musk said USAID funded bioweapons research, but evidence in the public domain suggests otherwise. He provided no evidence to support his claim or his inflammatory language. By blurring the lines between unclear authorities of DOGE, his responsibilities as someone presenting themselves as a Fed with access to sensitive information relevant to his rants, and the ketamine-fueled ravings of an arrogant CEO of his failing social platform, Elon Musk is a massive liability for our country.

Here’s the longer rant.

Elon musk said this:

… and he said it as someone running the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency”, overseeing a motley crew of coders who plugged into the Treasury and then USAID data systems containing troves of sensitive information. When someone accesses that kind of information, we might wonder if they have something up their sleeve but the consequences of what he’s claiming are so extreme it’s essential to call his bluff and call out this bullshit before it misleads the world any further.

From everything I’ve seen in the public domain, Musk is wrong, making his inflammatory statement all the more outrageous.

USAID funded the PREDICT project, a large pre-COVID project run by a team at UC Davis whose extensive, global network of colleagues went all around the world collecting animals, obtaining biological samples (saliva, feces, blood, skin, etc.) and sequencing them to search for viruses. Included in this project was EcoHealth Alliance, a NY-based non-profit that collaborated with an extensive network of labs around the world, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In addition to being part of PREDICT, EcoHealth was also part of an NIH/NIAID grant “Understanding the risk of bat coronavirus emergence”, the CEPI-funded Global Virome Project, and more.

Extensive networks of extensive networks can get complex, and funding pouring into all the nodes of this network-of-networks can make it difficult to tweeze apart who was funded for what. However, being precise about who-was-funded-for-what and who-did-what is crucial when studying the origins of SARS-CoV-2, otherwise we just embroil every scientist everywhere without clearly understanding the sequence of events that led to this likely research-related accident.

Who-funded What: PREDICT funded the collection of samples and characterization of viruses. They did not, to the best of my knowledge, fund the enhancement of potential pandemic pathogens, and that’s consistent with USAID’s desire to use this viral surveillance for the purpose of foreign aid and capacity building, improving viral detection capabilities around the world to ensure an outbreak anywhere can be identified and snuffed out by local infectious disease epidemiologists.

I have no evidence that USAID funded gain of function research of concern. Neither did the DoD. Not only did the DoD decline the DEFUSE grant proposing to enhance a bat sarbecovirus in Wuhan. The only agency I’m aware of that agreed to fund gain of function research of concern was NIH and NIAID.

The NIH/NIAID research funding Peter Daszak, “Understanding the risk of bat coronavirus emergence”, was the line of funding whose progress report includes clear gain of function research of concern on a bat SARS-related coronavirus. The distinction between PREDICT and NIH I claim was also noted by Peter Daszak in the private email below.

Yes, there were extensive networks of extensive networks and funding pouring into every node, but when it came down to legally suspect work, it was clear who-funded-what-and-why. Regarding ‘China Genbank Sequences’ of High Importance, Daszak says “It’s extremely important that we don’t have these sequences as part of our PREDICT release to Genbank at this point. As you may have heard, these were part of a grant just terminated by NIH.”

The China Genbank Sequences that could bring “very unwelcome attention” to whoever posted them were, according to Daszak’s own words, part of the NIH grant, not the PREDICT grant.

These details matter a lot. Musk has tweeted otherwise, claiming that “USAID, using YOUR tax dollars, funded bioweapons research, including COVID-19, that killed millions of people.” With that narrative backdrop blaring on the headlines, Musk and his cronies marched into USAID and began attempting to dismantle the agency.

However, with evidence in the public domain is not consistent with Musk’s claims. USAID funded viral surveillance, not GOFROC. The progress reports we’ve obtained point to NIAID as the only funder of GOFROC on SARSr-CoVs in the US government that we know about. Musk’s claims are inflammatory and appear to be used to justify dubious and possibly unconstitutional efforts to dismantle an agency designated by congress. Either Musk should disclose evidence supporting his claims or he should walk back his claims and stop trying to dismantle an agency on what the evidence we have suggests are false grounds.

USAID aside, Elon Musk needs to shut up about “bioweapons”. Musk’s speech on this matter is occurring in the context of him acting as if he were an appointed federal employee working for the executive branch… although of course he hasn’t been formally appointed to the best of our knowledge. He hasn’t signed agreements to be liable for the agency he oversees breaking laws, he has no clear authority… yet there he is, digging through USAID information and tweeting claims about USAID’s funding that haven’t been disclosed and, based on what we do know, are likely false.

Is Musk a Fed or is he the raving CEO of X? Assume Musk is speaking as a fed… on the platform that he owns about the agency he’s mucking around based on claims that he’s been authorized by the president… i.e. that he’s a Fed, but tweeting from the platform he owns.

Sidebar: does nobody care about ethics anymore? Do conflicts of interest not matter? Everybody was furious when Fauci’s conflicts of interest on COVID origins muddied waters, but who’s speaking up about Musk’s glaring conflicts of interest muddying with Treasury while receiving federal funds at SpaceX or dismantling USAID and live-tweeting it on his platform?

Amidst these blurred lines and conflicts of interest, Musk is making the claim that a US agency funded bioweapons research that killed millions. IF it were true (which I don’t think it is), it would be a violation of the biological weapons convention and rattle foreign diplomacy - did Musk check with Rubio at State before saying this? Even if Musk’s claim is false, which again I think it likely is, the fact that he’s saying it while his eyes glow from the computers at the Treasury and USAID could reasonably lead our allies and adversaries alike to wonder if it may be true, or our adversaries could weaponize Musk’s words and spawn untrue narratives that harm our country’s global standing.

When you say stupid shit while “working for” the US government, or whatever Musk is doing, it can have consequences. Instead of a BWC countering the proliferation of biological weapons, Musk’s foolish speech could conceivably trigger others to question our adherence to the BWC or spawn damaging conspiracy theories that undermine our credibility as a country that abides by the BWC, all with Musk most likely not actually knowing what he’s talking about.

Yes, Anthony Fauci’s NIAID funded gain of function research of concern enhancing potential pandemic pathogens ONLY IF the research was also aiming to develop vaccines. Nuance matters, because even though I disagree with the decision to fund GOFROC, funding GOFROC only when developing countermeasures is one way to show the whole world that this GOFROC was biodefensive.

Glossing over the details of who-funded-what and misrepresenting essential context on biological research and GOFROC, this is what Musk said:

Elon Musk is a dangerous fool who has no idea what his words could do. He’s accustomed to being a free-wheeling, unaccountable billionaire CEO but if he continues acting that way as a Fed then he can endanger our national security.

Governments and people working for governments have to be extremely careful about what they say. Here, for example, is the 2010 US DoD Nuclear Posture Review. Search for the term “CBW” and read for yourself, but big picture is that the US would be BIG MAD if any state used chemical or biological weapons against the US or its allies and partners. Some states would face “the prospect of a devastating conventional military response” and for states that possess nuclear weapons or not in compliance with their nuclear non-proliferation obligations “there remains a narrow range of contingencies in which the US nuclear weapons may still play a role in deterring a conventional or CBW attack against the United States or its allies and partners.”

There’s nuance in the 2010 nuclear posture review, but nonetheless the language is extremely careful, as governments and government officials ought to be given the risks of miscommunication or misunderstanding can be extreme. The US would be BIG MAD if anyone else used a bioweapon, and you can bet your biological agents other countries would also be BIG MAD if the US funded bioweapons work that killed their citizens.

Again, there is no evidence that what Musk said is true, and there is evidence contradicting Musk’s claims, making the fact that he’s claiming this while dismantling USAID all the more alarming.

On the topic of 28 million people dead, having the guy running around as if he’s the head of our federal government, hacking into Treasury and USAID only to pop out on X and claim "USAID, under YOUR tax dollars, funded bioweapon research, including COVID-19, that killed millions of people” is outrageous, ludicrous, dangerous, it is shouting fire in a theater crowded with nukes pointing in every direction, and Musk has not provided any evidence of the matter nor does he appear to be at all qualified or appointed to make such determinations.

USAID is, based on evidence in the public domain, innocent until proven guilty. There is some evidence pointing us to NIH funding gain of function research of concern, a misguided effort to make vaccines that could have gone awry, and we should investigate these credible claims to better understand the origins of SARS-CoV-2. It’s still possible that NIH and NIAID have no knowledge of the research that likely created SARS-CoV-2. It’s essential we don’t fixate on scenarios we can’t prove, and crucial we don’t follow Musk off the rhetorical cliff of his outrageous claims.

Elon Musk needs to shut the fuck up, find a lane, and stay in his lane before something goes horribly wrong. Elon, if you’re reading this, kindly shut the fuck up and you’ll thank me for it later because as bad as declining births can be for our society, raising geopolitical tensions with that kind of language on that kind of topic is far worse. Elon: pick a role - are you a Fed or are you CEO of X? If you’re a Fed, then start acting like it.

The United States of America, and the words & actions of its various officials and agency heads, is watched closely by every country in the world. We can’t have an unaccountable CEO-Fed blurring lines without clear authorizations, a formal appointment, and accountability. We can’t have an is-he-CEO-or-is-he-Fed shapeshifter drifting across every agency, hacking into systems containing sensitive information, and then tweeting from the platform he owns as if he’s a US government official spewing unfounded bullshit on catastrophically sensitive topics. Or, if he wants to do that as a Fed, then he should be a Fed and be accountable for his actions, or he should be a contractor whose scope of work is clearly defined and the government should follow non-compete laws when picking their DOGE contractor, insofar as we want to continue pretending our laws still exist, which I do.

Elon Musk as head of “DOGE” (whatever that is - can somebody point me to where congress approved this department and granted it authority?) is speaking in a manner that blurs his role as a private citizen, the access he’s somehow obtained with brute ego and connections as head of DOGE, and what we’d expect to hear from sane, thoroughly researched, and carefully worded assessments not from a random CEO running amok in DC but from formal appointees like the DNI, Attorney General, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, and more.

Forgive my French, but this is un spectecale de merde. The overconfident, unaccountable CEO-Fed has no idea what he’s doing.