\n\tKatheryn Houghton<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIT\u2019S BEEN REVEALED THAT FAUCI BROUGHT COVID TO THE MONTANA ONE YEAR BEFORE COVID BROKE OUT IN THE U.S!\u201d<\/p>\n

An ad from the Matt Rosendale for Montana campaign<\/p>\n

A fundraising ad for U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) shows a photo of Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, behind bars, swarmed by flying bats.<\/p>\n

Rosendale, who is eyeing a challenge to incumbent Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, maintains that a Montana biomedical research facility, Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, has a dangerous link to the pandemic. This claim is echoed in the ad<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been revealed that Fauci brought COVID to the Montana one year before COVID broke out in the U.S!,\u201d it charges in all-caps before asking readers to \u201cDonate today and hold the D.C. bureaucracy accountable!\u201d<\/p>\n

The ad, paid for by Matt Rosendale for Montana, seeks contributions through WinRed, a platform that processes donations for Republican candidates. Rosendale also shared the fundraising pitch on his X account Nov. 1<\/a>, and it remained live as of early February.<\/p>\n

Rosendale made similar accusations on social media, during a November speech<\/a> on the U.S. House floor, and through his congressional office. Sometimes his comments, like those on the House floor, are milder, saying the researchers experimented on \u201ca coronavirus\u201d leading up to the pandemic. Other times, as in an interview<\/a> with One America News Network, he linked the lab\u2019s work to covid-19\u2019s spread.<\/p>\n

In that interview clip, Rosendale recounted pandemic-era shutdowns before saying, \u201cAnd now we\u2019re finding out that the National Institute of Health, Rocky Mountain Lab, down in Hamilton, Montana, had also played a role in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosendale\u2019s statements echo broader efforts to scrutinize how research into viruses happens in the United States and is part of a continued wave of backlash against scientists who have studied coronaviruses. Rosendale is considering seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Tester, in a toss-up race<\/a> that could help determine which party controls the Senate in 2025. Political newcomer Tim Sheehy is also seeking the Republican nomination for the Senate.<\/p>\n

Rosendale proposed amendments to a health spending bill that would ban pandemic-related pathogen research funding for Rocky Mountain Laboratories and cut the salary of one of its top researchers, virologist Vincent Munster, to $1. The House has included both amendments in the Health and Human Services budget bill that the Republican majority hopes to pass. A temporary spending bill is funding the health department until March.<\/p>\n

We contacted Rosendale\u2019s congressional office multiple times \u2014 with emails, a phone call, and an online request \u2014 asking what proof he had to back up his statements that the Montana lab infected bats with covid from China before the outbreak. We got no reply.<\/p>\n

Kathy Donbeck, of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases\u2019 Office of Communications and Government Relations, said in an email that the ad\u2019s claims are false. Interviews with virologists and a review of the research paper published shortly before Rosendale\u2019s assertions support that position.<\/p>\n

Where This Is Coming From<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rosendale\u2019s statements seem to stem from a Rocky Mountain Laboratories study from 2016 that looked into how a coronavirus, WIV1-CoV, acted in Egyptian fruit bats. The work, published by the journal Viruses<\/a> in 2018, showed that the specific strain didn\u2019t cause a robust infection in the bats.<\/p>\n

The study did not receive widespread attention at the time. But on Oct. 30, 2023, the study was highlighted by a blog<\/a> called White Coat Waste Project, which says its mission is to stop taxpayer-funded experiments on animals. Some right-wing media outlets began to connect the Montana lab with the coronavirus that causes covid.<\/p>\n

Rosendale\u2019s office issued an Oct. 31 news release<\/a> saying the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China \u201cshipped a strain of coronavirus\u201d to the Hamilton lab. \u201cOur government helped create the Wuhan flu, then shut the country down when it escaped from the lab,\u201d Rosendale said.<\/p>\n