Similarly at stake were the careers of prominent members of the U.S. scientific establishment, who could be considered complicit or potentially culpable.
There was also the likely loss of trust by the American people in the integrity of science overall.
Like their partners in China, what U.S. government officials and members of the U.S. scientific establishment feared most was accountability.
That was the primary selfish motive for the cover-up they appeared to have initiated.
It began on February 3, 2020, when a meeting was held at U.S. National Academy of Science, led by Kelvin Droegemeier, Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy; D. Christian Hassell, Senior Science Advisor, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health.
The original emails related to the February 3, 2020 meeting are below…