- Welcome to "The 700 Club."

Get ready for a real shocker.

Your tax dollars, that's right,

yours may have funded research

that started the coronavirus pandemic.

That's right, it's calledGain of Function research

and it was conducted

in the Wuhan Instituteof Virology in late 2019.

Scientists are callingfor a new investigation

and lawmakers on CapitolHill are demanding answers.

Lorie Johnson brings usthe stunning details.

- Gain of Functionresearch is when scientists

manipulate a virus to domore than it usually does.

For example, causing avirus that usually infects

only animals to infect humans.

This type of research canbe used to develop cures

and vaccines or biological warfare.

The Wuhan Institute ofVirology reportedly conducted

Gain of Function research oncoronaviruses in late 2019.

That's about the same time when dozens

in the Wuhan area began to fall ill.

Streets near the institutewere then quickly closed.

Nevertheless, a World HealthOrganization team concluded

"a laboratory origin of thepandemic was extremely unlikely"

and animal to humaninfection "very likely."

Now months later, 18 scientistswant a new investigation.

In a letter publishedin the journal Science,

they write, "Theoriesof accidental release

from a lab and zoonoticspillover both remain viable."

On Capitol Hill, lawmakersalso demanding answers

about whether American taxpayers funded

this Gain of Function research

at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

- Dr. Fauci, do you still support funding

of the NIH funding of the lab in Wuhan?

- Senator Paul with all due respect,

you are entirely and completely incorrect

that the NIH has not ever and does not now

fund Gain of Function researchin the Wuhan Institute.

- Government scientists like yourself

who favor gain of function research-

- I don't favor Gain of Function research.

You are saying thingsthat are not correct.

- [Lorie] RankingIntelligence Committee Member

Devin Nunes disputesDr. Fauci's assertion.

Nunes says as Gain ofFunction research stopped

in the US the National Instituteof Health gave millions

to the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance,

a portion of which thenwent to the Wuhan lab.

- When it was banned herein the US or put on pause,

the Wuhan research wascontinuing and likely

with US dollars that we stilldon't have an accounting for.

- [Lorie] NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins

said the agency never approved funding

that supported Gain of Function research

but did admit, "We can'tabsolutely prevent somebody

who has an intention of deceiving us

about how they've used the funds."

EcoHealth Alliance President

Peter Daszak describes their research.

- And we've now found

after six or seven years of doing this,

over a hundred new SARSrelated coronaviruses,

very close to SARS.

Some of them can enterhuman cells in the lab

and some of them can cause SARS disease

in humanized mouse modelsand are untreatable

with therapeutic monoclonals,

and you can't vaccinateagainst them with the vaccine.

So these are a clear and present danger.

- [Lorie] Daszak was part of the WHO team

that determined the pandemic likely began

from animal to humantransmission, not a lab leak.

Some say his ties to the Wuhan lab

present a conflict of interest.

So while there's no evidenceto prove the pandemic began

in a Chinese lab, pressure mounts

for a more rigorousinvestigation than before

to include whether the USmay have played a role.

- Isn't that a shocking story?

Isn't that horrifyingthat Fauci and his crew

actually paid the moneyto develop the virus

that has destroyed the world?

Lorie Johnson is with us now

for more than on the link to the Wuhan lab

and why would the US fundresearch at the Wuhan lab?

- Pat, it's because of thecoronavirus research they do.

They look at thecoronaviruses that are in bats

found in caves in China.

And the reason the UnitedStates is interested in this,

it began in 2003 with the SARS outbreak

when one of these coronaviruses went

from a bat from a Chinesecave into a person,

8,000 people wereinfected, 800 people died.

That's a 10% death rate.

And so what turns out is these bats

in China carry hundreds of coronaviruses

and so the United Stateswants to know naturally

more about these coronaviruses,

particularly how theymay impact human health.

- But they went beyond that

to the so-called Gain of Function.

So they take some bugs fromthe bats or the bat dropping

or bat blood and thenthey want to manipulate it

and that is where we getthis terrible coronavirus

that's affecting the world.

Am I right with that?

- Well, that's actually a theory

and many people callit a conspiracy theory.

So there isn't the evidence,

there isn't proof thatthat's exactly what happened.

But there is a lot ofcircumstantial evidence.

And so for example, the House Republicans

on the Intelligence Committeeare releasing a report

as early as this week that may detail

some of that circumstantial evidence.

And Pat, they also wrote aletter to President Biden

last Friday demanding thathe released intelligence

that they believe the Bidenadministration is sitting

on regarding the originsof the coronavirus

including a report thatthe State Department

reportedly received in May of 2020

that says that Chinese military scientists

were developing bioweaponswith coronaviruses

as early as five years ago.

So more calls for investigationsregarding the origins

of this virus are coming from all sectors.

- You know, President Trump was beat up.

He kept calling it the Chinese virus

and everybody just laughed at him,

well, it's was your fault.

And suddenly, the US, our economy,

this thing has disrupted theeconomy of the United States

in a horrible way, costus trillions of dollars

and the death toll around the world

for this one virus is in thetens of millions now, isn't it?

- It's about 3 million deaths.

And so it's true.

And we need to get to the bottom of this.

How did it originate?

The WHO report was inconclusive,everyone agrees on that.

And most people agree thatfurther investigation needs

to be done on both theories,

whether it went from bat tohuman, which has been unproven,

or whether it escaped from alab, which is also unproven.

- Are we still doingGain of Function research

here in America?

- Gain of Function research inthe United States was paused

in 2014 during the Obama administration

and that pause was lifted in 2017

during the Trump administration.

There are reports that Gain of Function

research has been done in North Carolina,

and may be continuing even now,

although there is somequestion about whether

that research actually fits the definition

of Gain of Function research.

- Lorie, thank you for your insights.

Well, in other news, atougher line on Israel.

That's what the Bidenadministration is now taking

after pressure from more Democrats.

So what happened when amember of the so-called Squad

confronted the president about his support

for our dear friends in Israel?

John Jessup has more.

- That's right, Pat.

Hundreds of thousands ofPalestinians in Israel took

to the streets to protestthe military response

to the ongoing rocket attacks from Gaza.

Violence breaking out in the West Bank

with hundreds wounded and four dead.

In Gaza, Israel DefenseForces struck Hamas leaders

and military targetsas terrorists continue

to launch rockets into southern Israel.

The Biden administrationnot yet explicitly

joining the global calls for ceasefire.

However, White Houseofficials say the president

is taking a firm linewarning Benjamin Netanyahu

that he can't hold off the international

community much longer.

Meanwhile, the president facesdivisions in his own party.

Another sign yesterday whenMichigan Democrat Representative

Rashida Tlaib confronted the president

during his visit to Detroitreportedly criticizing

his support for Netanyahu's government

in an eight minute talkon the airport tarmac.

Protests in ElizabethCity, North Carolina,

after district attorney announced

sheriff's deputies won't face charges

in the shooting death ofAndrew Brown Jr., a black man.

The DA calling Brown'sdeath tragic but justified.

Police bodycam footageshowing deputies surrounding

Brown's car as they serve warrants

related to felony drug charges.

One deputy grabs the door handle,

that's when Brown puts the car in reverse.

The DA says he ignoredthe deputy's commands

and hit one with a car.

Three deputies opened fire.

Brown died from a gunshotwound to the back of the head.

His family calling his death an execution

and the decision not to charge

the officers a slap in the face.

- At no point was Andrew Brown Jr. using

his vehicle as a weapon,no officers were injured,

no officers were knocked down.

In fact, at every point he was moving

his vehicle away from officers.

- When you employ a car in a manner

that puts officers' livesin danger, that is a threat.

And I don't care whatdirection you're going.

- And Pat, the FBI is pursuing a federal

civil rights probe into the killing.

- You know, it's amazing,

they went immediately on the air,

the defense and said it was an execution,

it was a contract killing,it was a horrible thing.

And then we have towait a couple of weeks.

And then suddenly here's the video.

The guy wasn't just sittingin his car peacefully

and the officers cameand started shooting him.

And they said he was shot many times,

he was only shot twice.

And the truth is he triedto run the officers down.

And once you get thevideo and when I was on

this program talkinga couple of weeks ago,

I said they ought to releasethe video immediately.

But the lie goes out there that the police

executed an unarmed black mansitting in his car peaceably.

That wasn't the case.

He was using his car as a weapon

and tried to run thepolice down several times.

But they only shot him twice.

And of course, the secondbullet was what killed him.

But nevertheless, thepolice were justified

in trying to defend themselves.

So we have to get the truth.

And there's so many lies out in the media.

You have all the time andit reinforces the narrative

that the police are bad,

we need to defund the police and so forth.

And then the communities where

those police have been defundedare now beginning to say,

but we're having an influx of crime

that we've never had before we've got

to get some police back.

And many wonderful officers who've been

in the police forces areresigning all across the country

because of what's being done to them.

But this thing in ElizabethCity was just one example

of how the media picks up the narrative

that these police are terrible

and we're gonna defund the police.

And then suddenly, wehave, it's a crime wave

in every single city, murder and arson

and other kinds of crimes have gone

up dramatically duringthis period of time.

John.

- Pat, turning to severe weather,

heavy storms assaultingLouisiana and Texas

this week left entireneighborhoods submerged

in Lake Charles, Louisiana,after a foot of rain fell.

Parents had to wadethrough waist high water

to take their children tosafety with emergency workers

and good Samaritans carryingout more than 150 rescues.

Meanwhile, more than 20tornadoes have been reported

between Texas and Wyoming.

Fortunately, little damage reported

from those twisters, Pat.

- Well, you know, it'sone of those things.

What are we dealing with?

You know, we don't know for sure.

Is it global warming?

T. Ross, our expert, saysactually, we're coming

into a period of global cooling.

But we need more research.

But we certainly have been faced

with terrible weatherhere in this country.

And we're just goinginto the tornado season

so hold on to your hat.