Fauci had a ‘very good talk’ with Sam Bankman-Fried: Diary

Fauci recorded the call in his diary, 1,141 pages of which were released earlier this week by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). The conversation was one of many that Fauci held with celebrities enamored by his role directing the response to COVID-19 as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.The call occurred four months before cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which Bankman-Fried co-founded, faced a massive liquidity crisis after a report revealed that it was funneling customer funds to his trading firm, Alameda Research. The California native was sentenced to 25 years in prison for defrauding investors of more than $1.7 billion. The diary did not indicate that Fauci and Bankman-Fried spoke after the meeting or that Fauci had any knowledge of Bankman-Fried’s criminal enterprise.FAUCI RECOUNTS HOW KATIE MILLER WAS DISPATCHED TO APOLOGIZE AFTER TRUMP SCREAMED AT HIM“We spoke about how Sam with his billions of dollars could partner with the NIH and pushing the scientific agenda for the prototype pathogen approach of pandemic preparedness,” Fauci wrote.Bankman-Fried joined the call with his younger brother, Gabriel Bankman-Fried, and two of their associates. The younger Bankman-Fried ran a pandemic-prevention organization, Guarding Against Pandemics, that raised $22 million in its first full year in 2021. That funding came from Sam Bankman-Fried, who, at the time, was one of the world’s youngest billionaires. Sam Bankman-Fried was a Silicon Valley whiz kid with connections in the halls of power. Fauci wrote that the meeting was initiated by then-West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin.“Sam is a good friend of senator Joe Manchin and Joe is the one who originally pointed Sam in my direction,” Fauci wrote.Fauci indicated that the Bankman-Frieds wanted his involvement in a partnership in which Congress and the billionaire would co-equally invest in the prototype pathogen model. That strategy involves developing vaccines and treatments in advance for representative viruses so that they can quickly be adapted for emerging pathogens.“We left it that they put together a proposal and that I serve as the scientific advisor for the amount of money that Sam wants to put into this even though I must be careful and will be careful about not getting involved in writing any legislation since Manchin has been talking about writing this into a reconciliation bill,” Fauci wrote.SAM BANKMAN-FRIED APPLIES FOR PARDONThe meeting with Sam Bankman-Fried was one of the many that Fauci held with the rich and powerful in the aftermath of the pandemic. Fauci’s diary also describes how celebrities such as Barbara Streisand and Chris Wallace routinely called him for health advice.Paul, who released Fauci’s diary, has long quarreled with the doctor over his response to the pandemic. That feud came to a head on Wednesday when Fauci pleaded the Fifth more than 100 times in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which Paul chairs.