Three Days
in February
In late January 2020, a virologist told Anthony Fauci privately that the new coronavirus looked, to him, as though it could have been engineered. Seven weeks later, he and his colleagues published the paper most often cited against that idea.
Every factual assertion here traces to a primary document. Where a conclusion belongs to investigators rather than the record, we attribute it. We let the dates carry the argument.
The confidence gap
Read the investigation →| Date | Setting | Statement |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 31 2020 | private | “could look engineered” |
| Feb 8 2020 | private | “isn’t conclusive enough” |
| Feb 12 2020 | private | “a serious scientific theory” |
| Mar 17 2020 | public | “not plausible” |
| Apr 17 2020 | public | cited from the podium |
“isn't conclusive enough to say that we have high confidence in any of the three main theories”
“we do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible”
Investigations
All investigations →Three Days in February
The dated record of the Proximal Origin paper — from a private warning that the virus could "look engineered" to a published conclusion that no lab scenario was "plausible."
The Six-Foot Rule
The provenance of distancing and mask guidance, in the transcript's own words — and a careful test of a widely misquoted exchange.
Gain-of-Function, Defined and Redefined
Fauci's testimony on what the term means, set against the documentary record and the NIH's own framework.
Fauci and the Agencies
The 4 June 2021 CIA briefing and a year of engagements between NIAID's director and the intelligence community.
The Complaint
A whistleblower allegation of false testimony — what the documents substantiate, and what they do not.
Schools
Closure and reopening guidance, read against the evidence base that existed at the time.
The Archive
Browse documents →A searchable library of the primary record — declassified intelligence assessments, congressional testimony, the dated emails behind the headlines, scientific papers, and the government's own grant reports. Open the source behind any sentence we publish.