“Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University told a Senate committee hearing on June 18, 2024, that “… lapses in U.S. oversight of gain-of-function research and enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research likely contributed to the origin of COVID-19…”” So stated Martin Hoyt via Real Clear Wire and the WND News Center. “China was selected [for gain of function or GOF research] because it was quicker and cheaper to conduct research without U.S. government entanglements or oversight.” As those who have been working in manufactured housing for the past four to five years or longer know, COVID19 disrupted thousands of lives working in our profession. COVID19 upended the American housing, automotive, and other markets. Dealing with COVID19 cost the U.S. economy trillions of dollars. Martin Hoyt’s expert insights below confirm concerns previously published by MHProNews and MHLivingNews. But Hoyt’s insights should also beg the question: precisely what is it that the federal government is doing well? What are our tax dollars achieving vs. the stated goals? That and more will be unpacked in Part II, which will include some data that may be surprising to some.
Hoyt’s insights into the declared COVID-19 pandemic are found in Part I and were provided to MHProNews via the WND News Center. Part II will illustrate manufactured housing specific concerns.
Part I from Real Clear Wire and the WND News Center to MHProNews is the following curated report.
Gain of function, loss of … everything else
‘Lapses in oversight’ likely contributed to COVID-19
By Martin Hoyt, Real Clear Wire | July 27, 2024
It did not have to be this way. The COVID-19 pandemic cost American citizens their lives, their livelihoods, education, mental health, reputations and, ultimately, civil and religious freedoms. “The U.S. accounts for less than 5% of the world’s population, but more than 25% of total COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, and it currently ranks among the top 10 countries in COVID-19-related deaths per capita,” wrote the authors of 2023 commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association. And for all that, we have government to thank.
For years leading up to the pandemic, the nation had spent billions on preparation and planning for a biohazard attack or event. Whatever we learned was quickly discarded or undone by a lack of accountability, transparency, and humility. Decades of planning and untold man hours of research and training were rendered ineffective by a corrupt culture of greed, self-importance, scientific misconduct, and outright fraud. Because, while the government worked to prevent the worst, it was also helping to create chaos and contagion by funding and facilitating gain of function (GOF) research.
GOF research refers to laboratory efforts to make viruses deadlier or to increase their transmissibility. The potential for disaster is obvious. Almost five years prior to the pandemic Dr. Marc Lipsitch and Dr. Alison Galvani noted that GOF pathogenic research posed “a risk of accidental and deliberate release that, if it led to extensive spread of the new agent, could cost many lives … Furthermore, the likelihood of risk is multiplied as the number of laboratories conducting such research increases around the globe.”
But according to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s emails and other NIAID communications obtained via FOIA – those that weren’t deleted by the now-infamous “FOIA lady” – the Wuhan lab was working on Covid research with the U.S. as early as 2015. And the worst happened. Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University told a Senate committee hearing on June 18, 2024, that “… lapses in U.S. oversight of gain-of-function research and enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research likely contributed to the origin of COVID-19 …”
While Ebright said GOF has no medical utility, he emphasized that there are “major incentives to researchers worldwide, in China, and in the U.S. The researchers undertake this research because it is easy, they get the money, and they can get the papers [in science journals].”
Not surprisingly, China was selected because it was quicker and cheaper to conduct research without U.S. government entanglements or oversight. Dr. Steven Quay also testified on June 18 and said the Wuhan Institute of Virology is a “level-2 lab,” as opposed to highly secure level-4 labs elsewhere. Moreover, Dr. Fauci et al were able to fund this research because the law was silent. Ebright again:
… in this category of research, which is the most significant in terms of consequences and potentially existential risk there is almost no regulation with force of law. No regulation with force of law for biosafety or any pathogen other than the smallpox virus and no regulation with force of law for bio risk management for any pathogen.
But the U.S. and the world, may have temporarily escaped imminent catastrophe. Consider, according to Dr. Quay, what Wuhan obtained from Canada’s National Microbiology Lab in 2019: “two vials each of 15 strains of virus: seven varieties of Ebola virus, the Hendra virus, and two strains of Nipah virus, Malaysia and Bangladesh.” These virus samples, according to Dr. Steven Quay, are “the top three most deadly human pathogens on the planet.” The samples were obtained under murky circumstances (“described as a possible policy breach”) from a level-4 lab and surreptitiously flown on a commercial flight to Beijing where they were subsequently placed in a level-2 lab overseen by a country with a long history of a disregard for proper safety protocols.
Gain of function research probably created COVID-19, but our legislative and executive branches created the conditions for the disaster. Congress failed to pass laws governing specific GOF research, both Congress and the executive branch failed to effectively manage the federal health and science bureaucracy, and various agencies failed to monitor the behavior and performance of grantees and vendors engaged in GOF research. When catastrophe struck, self-interest and political survival of those responsible overrode the best interests of our citizenry.
Who in the government benefited? How and to what extent did they benefit? Did any GOF research contribute to the U.S. global or response? Is GOF research being rerouted to our defense and security agencies to avoid scrutiny? NIAID continues to stall, obfuscate, and otherwise restrict transparency to its current and past activities. We know there was a concerted effort by senior leaders like Anthony Fauci to hide or delete emails but many other records still likely exist that remain uncovered.
This must change. Any research activity or sponsorship of scientific endeavors that are capable of mass extinction, such as GOF, must be subjected to a higher level of accountability and scrutiny by our elected leaders and the American public. Accountability, transparency, and public debate after an international crisis like Covid-19 can’t undo the global catastrophic harm that was done. It can, however, reduce the ability of our public health bureaucracy to contribute to the next disaster or looming crisis.
Martin Hoyt is the Director for Public Health Reform Alliance, a nonpartisan organization committed to increasing transparency and oversight on the public health system so it works better for all Americans.
Part II – Additional Information with More MHProNews Analysis and Commentary
Much has been, and will be, made about the apparent lapses in security by the Secret Service in the assassination attempt on deposed President Donald J. Trump. Left-leaning CBS News reported that the “Secret Service budget has swelled to over $3 billion dollars” annually. Yet, numerous security lapses occurred, which are the subject of Congressional oversight and other hearings and investigations.
That was not the only time in the 21st century that a security ‘breakdown’ occurred.
For example, according to left-leaning Wikipedia, during the Obama-Biden Administration was an incident that made national news.
“The 2014 White House intrusion occurred on September 19, 2014, when Omar J. Gonzalez, an Iraq War veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, jumped over the White House‘s fence and entered the building’s front door, overpowered a security officer, was stopped by another who was off-duty, then later by multiple security officers, and arrested. He was found to have a small knife in his pocket, and stated that the “atmosphere was collapsing” and he needed to tell the president so that he could alert the public. President Barack Obama and his family were not home at the time of the incident. As a result of this incident and other security breaches at the White House, the then-director of the United States Secret Service, Julia Pierson, resigned from her position on October 1, 2014. …”
Besides the Gonzalez incident, these two have been reported in the 21st century.
- November 24, 2009 – Carlos Allen, Michaele Salahi, and Tareq Salahi showed up uninvited to a state dinner for then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.[16][17]
- September 20, 2020 – Actress Maria Bakalova, portraying her character Tutar during filming for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, gained access to the White House by shadowing the OAN journalist Chanel Rion. She attended a Donald Trump speech and was able to speak with Donald Trump Jr. The footage from the incident was not used in the film, but shared online later.[20]
Apparently, over a dozen times the White House property has been breached since the turn of the century in somewhat less dramatic ways. Perhaps it is no wonder that former Secret Service agent turned talk radio pundit Dan Bongino has said that the agency needs to be revamped, because it is supposed to have a singular duty of safeguarding a protectee. According to left-leaning Google AI powered Gemini: “A protectee is a person who receives official protection, such as a head of state. For example, the Secret Service provides protection to permanent protectees like the president and vice president, as well as temporary protectees like presidential candidates and foreign heads of state. Permanent protectees have special agents permanently assigned to them, while temporary protectees receive special agents on temporary assignment.”
Beyond the Secret Service, what about other agencies and their performance?
1) 2018 left-leaning Pew Research Center study found that the US ranked 27th in the world for education and health, down from sixth place in 1990.
2) Per a Business Insider report in 2018, the U.S. ranked 38th in math scores and 24th in science.
3) Google’s AI powered Gemini said: “According to several reports, health outcomes in the U.S. have been worsening since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic: Life expectancy The U.S. has a lower life expectancy than other wealthy nations, and ranks 33 out of 38 OECD countries for average life expectancy. Life expectancy in the U.S. declined for three years in a row before the pandemic, and recorded one of the largest decreases between 2019 and 2021.”
4) Health Systems Tracker said: “Despite spending more money per capita on healthcare than any similarly large and wealthy nation, the United States has a lower life expectancy than peer nations and has seen worsening health outcomes since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Report dated: Oct 23, 2023.
5) “US spends most on health care but has worst health outcomes among high-income countries, new report finds,” said left-leaning CNN. 1.31.2023.
6) AI powered Gemini said: “The United States’ infrastructure is considered to be in the top 25% of the world’s most resilient systems, but it’s aging and vulnerable to disruptive events. According to PBS, the U.S. falls behind many other developed countries because of its aging infrastructure. For example, the country’s inland waterway infrastructure hasn’t been updated since the 1950s, and 70% of the U.S.’s dams will be over 50 years old by 2025. Weather-related power outages have also become 10 times more frequent since the 1980s.”
7) As Martin Hoyt pointed out in the column in Part I, the federal government spends billions of dollars annually on intelligence and bio-security mitigation. Yet when the system was needed, in 2019 and 2020, it failed spectacularly. MHProNews previously published insights on mainstream media reporting that U.S. intelligence services were aware of indications that a biological threat was emerging in China weeks before then President Trump was informed. Ironically, the Crimson Contagion bio-threat exercise was conducted at about the time that the actual COVID19 virus emerged.
8) There is Homeland Security. HUD. FHFA. DOE. FBI. CIA. NSA. What, is working exactly as planned or portrayed by governmental cheerleaders? Indeed, the reason that inspector general’s exist is precisely because the federal government realizes that there are routine lapses occurring in their agencies.
Furthermore, as the House.gov website explains: “The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is known as “the investigative arm of Congress” and “the congressional watchdog.” GAO supports the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and helps improve the performance and accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people.” The reason that the GAO exists is because there is an obvious awareness that investigations and watchdogs are needed, because there are failures in the federal bureaucracy.
9) Poverty programs obviously don’t prevent poverty. Trillions of dollars have been spent since Democratic President Lyndon Banes Johnson (LBJ) launched his “Great Society” program. There are indications that the amount of the federal debt is roughly equal to spending by problematic programs. Note, Heritage told MHProNews earlier this year that this data has not yet been updated, but it nevertheless illustrates the high cost of failing to solve problems that politicians claimed could be solved by government. While this is often linked to Democrats, in fairness, it must be pointed out that President George W. Bush led-Republicans spurred a growth in Medicare, and Republican President Richard M. Nixon ‘opened up’ China to U.S. investments and trade. That said, obviously Democrats often supported those GOP-lead errors. There is blame that correctly should fall on both specific issues connected to each of the major U.S. parties.
10) Those examples don’t mean or imply that everything is wrong, or that nothing is done properly. Those examples don’t mean or imply that there aren’t fine employees working in the federal government. But they are indicative of an upside-down, Topsy Turvey nature of what has been occurring in the U.S. for some years.
11) That evidence, facts, reports, and research noted, it is clear that a major shakeup of the federal government is necessary, if not essential. While such a discussion underway on the Republican side of the two major party contests for the 2024 election, where is the similar discussion by Democratic Party leaders over the inefficiency of the federal government? Sadly, the answer is it largely missing on the Democratic side, save by people who are ex-Democrats.
Remember when Tulsi Gabbard absolutely destroyed Kamala Harris in the Democratic debate? I do.
If you cared about winning, you would stop choosing idiots to represent your party. pic.twitter.com/UECWxiOl0c
— The Feminist Misogynist (@igarglewithfire) July 21, 2024
It isn’t an exaggeration to say that these sorts of items are potentially haunting Democratic plans for Kamala Harris. Due in part to this ‘take down’ of Harris by Gabbard in that 2020 debate, Harris dropped out of the 2020 nomination race before the Iowa caucuses. Harris has not received a single delegate on her own efforts.
RETWEET EVERY DAY!!!
This video of Tulsi Gabbard obliterating Kamala Harris during the 2020 debate is coming back to haunt Kamala. pic.twitter.com/1UVBMFBaDL— TL Rttn (@rttn_tl) July 23, 2024
BLM and Matt Stoller are typically Democratic supporting voices slamming Democrats.
Black Lives Matter Denounces Democrats for ‘Anointing’
Harris CALLING FOUL: Black Lives Matter is taking issue with the way that Vice President Harris was chosen as the party’s presumptive nominee. They demand the DNC to host a “virtual snap primary”: https://t.co/3uOELGEV5C pic.twitter.com/HTttOz23dz— Crime Survivors PAC (@Survivors_PAC) July 24, 2024
Democratic Silicon Valley billionaire Reid Hoffman gives $7m to Harris, immediately demands she fire FTC Chair Lina Khan. pic.twitter.com/SUgLxs3D1E
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 25, 2024
12) That noted, give Democrats their due. They should not be underestimated, as some on right may be tempted to do. By accident and/or design, Democrats have managed to utilize the system in ways that routinely benefits their party and the supporters of their party. Poverty programs have been referred to as “plantation politics.” IGI Global, for instance, has identified the following about “plantation politics.”
The understanding that institutions including higher education are based on the practice of plantation life, slavery and slave economy, whereby operationalizing the purchase, sale, safety, and invisible exploitation of Black bodies. …”
IGI says that Felicia Lundquist (Springfield College, USA) included a chapter in her book:
Source Title: Black Women Navigating Historically White Higher Education Institutions and the Journey Toward Liberation
Copyright: © 2022 |Pages: 37
Published in Chapter:
Give and Take, the Love and Hate Relationship: Black Identity, Plantation Politics, and Leadership.”
The point of this outline isn’t to endorse or critique her book and that chapter. Rather, it is to illustrate that an agency or institution can be turned on its head in how it actually operates.
13) These matters certainly impact the U.S. economy, politics, and thus our industry too. But to turn this discussion into more manufactured housing specific, consider the FHFA. Per their website:
The Federal Register says: “The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) was created on July 30, 2008, when the President signed into law the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.”
Part of the mission of those Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac is supposed to be the Duty to Serve Manufactured Housing (DTS).
Freddie Mac’s website says the following.
Making Affordable Homeownership Available to Every Single Family
What is Duty to Serve?
Under the guidance of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Freddie Mac collaborated with mortgage industry stakeholders to develop the Duty to Serve plan to make financing of manufactured housing and rural housing easier for families with very low-, low- and moderate-income, and preserve the affordability of these homes over time.
Helping you serve more U.S. families.
We leveraged our 45+ years of experience to support underserved markets by financing more rural and manufactured housing and preserving more affordable housing for homebuyers nationwide.
But some 16 years have elapsed since DTS was established. Freddie Mac, as well as Fannie Mae, have dozens of “years of experience” in serving the mortgage industry. Are they seriously going to claim that they can’t make more competitive lending available for chattel manufactured home buyers?
The Masthead on MHProNews report linked below makes it clear that FHFA, Fannie, and Freddie have each failed in that Congressionally mandated “duty.”
14) MHI can’t claim to be unaware of these issues, because MHI leaders have publicly and in relevant documents stated that they want to see them fixed. You can’t fix what hasn’t already gone awry.
15) The problem with MHI’s stated stances shown above, and there are more like those, is their arguably radical inconsistency and lack of logical follow through. Consider how Mark Weiss, J.D., President and CEO of the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) publicly slapped down MHI CEO Lesli Gooch’s remarks last year on DTS.
16) MHI and/or Democrats have themselves made problematic and self-contradictory remarks and behaviors.
17) A former public official told MHProNews that there is little or no incentive for governmental officials to solve problems. It is worth noting that source, like MHProNews, became a political independent.
Yes, it is helpful to have a ‘poster child’ that seems to indicate the benefit some individual(s) may obtain. But if the affordable housing crisis, for example, were actually solved, then that issue can no longer be used as a campaign issue to garner votes.
18) Hanne Nabintu Herland is a South African born historian who moved to Norway in Northern Europe. She has no direct ‘dog in the hunt’ of U.S. politics, but she does care deeply about what occurs here as do many overseas because the U.S. is so significant to the struggle for authentic vs. faux freedom. Herland has been writing for years on issues that reflect how American society has been undermined by billionaires and their corporate interests who routinely are backing Democrats and who routinely are opposing Trump. Herland has sounded the alarm on the undermining of the separation of powers in the U.S. Herland, as has others, fingered billionaires linked to the manufactured housing industry in her reports and books.
19) Let’s be clear. Voting for Harris, whoever may or may not replace her, and the relevant ticket that Democratic power brokers put on their party’s ticket is, as BLM argued, undemocratic. They have disenfranchised their own party’s voters. There are those who make the argument that this is the third-election cycle in a row where Democratic insiders are picking winners and losers, contrary to the will of Democratic voters. Those making that argument say Joe Biden was rescued by the party’s insiders in the 2020 cycle in South Carolina, and that candidates with more support curiously dropped out not long thereafter. In essence, they argue, Biden was picked because party bosses and the donor class didn’t want Bernie Sanders or someone else who was ‘too far to the left’ to be their nominee.
The oddity now is that Harris is one of those who has a record that is far left, reportedly further left than Bernie Sanders (VT-DS). To make her more palatable, there are memory hole efforts underway, such as GovTrack eliminating her voting record.
Dear Govtrack … Why did you delete this? pic.twitter.com/pzsLcW6GY0
— GHOST PATRIOT (@Ghostpat11) July 29, 2024
GovTrack attempted to delete their 2019 Report Card showing Kamala Harris as the most liberal Senator in America.
The internet lives forever. pic.twitter.com/CQzZyTuAsj
— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) July 25, 2024
20) This video mashup reveals how pro-Harris-Democrat media are attempting to erase Harris’ role in the Biden-Harris administration for the border fiasco.
Video by @Banned_Bill showing journalists deciding now that Kamala Harris not the border czar, after years of calling her just that, played by @piersmorgan: ”We’ve got a little mash-up which @NewsBusters had prepared for the delectation of the world.” https://t.co/QxiyaFapAc pic.twitter.com/JQD8yWRTqa
— MRC NewsBusters (@newsbusters) July 26, 2024
21) But the point with respect to this topic is this. These are not about Harris and Democrats alone. It is about what Martin Hoyt for Real Clear Wire revealed are ‘Lapses in Oversight’ in ‘Gain of Function’ and other issues. In fairness to Harris, she is an apparent symptom of a bigger problem. Harris is arguably the next pawn in a larger game.
The system has been rigged. 2/3rd’s of the country or more believe that to be true. That belief has implications. What is needed are leaders backed by tens of millions of motivated citizens-voters who see the problems and are willing to tackle the rot in the system and root it out. ###
Here is Malcom X, he was a civil rights activist in America, he challenged the racist American authorities; because of this, he was shot 21 times and killed in Audubon ballroom in 1965 where he was giving a speech. Teach your kids about Malcom X pic.twitter.com/rcv3xSRH9W
— Ademọ́lá. (@OgbeniDemola) September 11, 2023
59 years after the assassination of El-Hajj Malik Shabazz aka Malcom X his words still ring true. He often expresses skepticism about white liberals motives and realized they were only interested in maintaining their power and privilege than in supporting racial equality. pic.twitter.com/qBUYX9lQJo
— IG: RahiemShabazz (@rahiemshabazz) February 15, 2024
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By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
Related References:
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