Newly obtained documents reportedly show that Dr. Anthony Fauci instructed an aide to permanently delete an email concerning controversial gain-of-function research years before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The emails, obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation, date back to 2012, when Fauci was defending experiments that made a highly dangerous strain of bird flu transmissible through the air.
Dutch virologist Ron Fouchier conducted the experiments with funding from Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Fouchier described the resulting virus as “probably one of the most dangerous viruses you can make.”
Eight years before COVID emerged, a journalist issued a prophetic warning that risky viral research could usher in “doomsday” and damage the reputation of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Anthony Fauci groused in an email to an aide about that warning, then instructed the… pic.twitter.com/QdsWusepAT
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 28, 2026
The experiments triggered debate over whether the potential benefits of gain-of-function research justified the potentially catastrophic consequences of an accidental laboratory escape.
New York Times science writer Phil Boffey was among those sounding the alarm, warning of an “engineered doomsday” capable of killing “hundreds of millions of people.”
Boffey also suggested that the NIH had its own reputation at stake because it had financed the experiments.
That criticism apparently irritated Fauci.
“Phil Boffey is really off base here,” Fauci wrote to then-NIH Director Francis Collins on March 4, 2012. “He is acting like a mischievous guy.”
The following morning, Fauci complained about the article to his subordinate.
“Clearly, people are getting to Phil Boffey and he is swallowing it,” he wrote.
Fauci then gave an explicit instruction concerning the correspondence.
“Please delete this e-mail and then delete from the deleted file,” Fauci wrote from his government email account.
The revelation raises further questions about Fauci’s handling of federal records.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has previously highlighted two other instances in which Fauci allegedly sought to delete government communications.
Fauci testified before Congress in 2024 that he had not destroyed official records.
The latest disclosure comes after separate documents revealed NIAID’s cooperation with the CIA on sensitive virus and biological-threat research during Fauci’s tenure.
New Documents Confirm Fauci’s NIAID Provided Cover for CIA Bioterrorism Research — CIA Helped Obtain the Viruses and Controlled What Data Could Be Shared
Those records showed an interagency arrangement under which the CIA’s Biological Technology Center worked with NIAID on “forensic microbiology.”
This included provisions allowing the CIA to assist in obtaining biological agents and restricting NIAID from releasing certain research data without CIA approval.
Fauci ultimately succeeded in pushing for Fouchier’s controversial bird-flu research to be published in full.
Fouchier would later participate in private discussions with Fauci and other scientists about the origins of COVID-19 and contributed arguments to the influential “Proximal Origin” paper, which argued against a laboratory origin being likely.
The Gateway Pundit has long reported on the numerous controversies and alleged misconduct surrounding America’s most influential health official and the pressure on the former NIAID director now appears to be mounting.
Several weeks ago, Fauci’s former senior adviser, David Morens, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States by concealing information about the origins of COVID-19 and attempting to evade Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
After an FBI investigation with our DOJ partners, Dr. Fauci’s associate, David Morens, just pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a scheme to avoid FOIA requests and the Federal Records Act connected to COVID-19 research grants.
The FBI uncovered that Morens, Co-Conspirator 1,… pic.twitter.com/IR7TCUm10m
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) August 18, 2026
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