Show notes
In this episode of Based Camp, Simone and Malcolm Collins dive deep into the 1,141-page collection of Anthony Fauci’s private typewritten notes (December 2019–December 2022) released by Senator Rand Paul’s office.Most media coverage has been surface-level and dismissive. Simone spent significant tokens analyzing the full (scanned, hard-to-read) document. What emerges is far more revealing: Fauci’s early private concerns about lab-origin possibilities and gain-of-function research he helped fund, how the narrative hardened over time, his internal framing of expert disagreements, the evolution of mask guidance, vaccine safety signals he tracked privately, and the surreal personal side of sudden celebrity (bobbleheads, prayer candles, celebrity encounters, and more).We walk through the actual quotes so you can judge for yourself. The full original PDF is linked in the show notes.This is one of the clearest windows we’ve had into how the official COVID narrative was managed from the inside.Show NotesHere is the original PDF.What People are Saying About ThisThe mainstream/leftist response to this is that Republicans are out on a Fauci-themed witch hunt.In response to someone asking “what’s going on with anthony fauci and his diary?” on r/OutOfTheLoop, Bignholy (who posted the top-voted comment) wrote:Rand Paul got ahold of Fauci’s private notes internal nonpublic notes from the COVID era. The current GOP being what it is, they are now trying to use that to push for punishing Fauci based on the fact that he wrote in it some things that don’t match the final statements made by the CDC back during COVID.When Fauci was called in to yet again to be questioned yet again by the same people who ignored him and tried to prosecute him previously, he flat out said that they are now seeking to entrap him for political reasons, and plead the 5th rather than play along. Quote from the article, for those who come after and don’t want to click the bloody link:“However, given Senator Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, the only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up in his words, quote, behind bars, unquote,” Fauci said.“Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion,” he said.“Therefore, although it pains me to do so, because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.”Original-Rush139 added: “I only read through January of 2020 but he seemed convinced the market was where the virus spread not originated. I didn’t see any hypothesis about its origin. People don’t get that he was very careful in public to talk about the data he had. China covered everything up so there never was and never will be data about the origin.”Virus OriginsWhat does Dr. Fauci write about the origins of the COVID-19 virus? Does he seriously entertain the idea that it was a lab leak?* On January 26, 2020, Fauci wrote about the Wuhan wet market: “It now appears using epi data and genomic data that the first infection was in early December and was not connected to the market... Now we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier. Having said that, somewhere the virus jumped from animals to humans.”* The more striking entries come from January 31, 2020. Fauci describes a call from Wellcome Trust director Jeremy Farrar, conferenced with evolutionary biologist Kristian Andersen: “There have been conspiracy theories that the virus was given GOF by inserted mutations and deliberately or accidentally released in Wuhan... The people on the phone felt that the mutations around the furine cleavage site of the spike protein could not have occurred naturally since it would require an evolutionary ‘jump’ that they found nowhere in bat isolates. They bring up the possibility that this could have been deliberately inserted and either accidentally released or deliberately released by a crazy person in the lab, the former being the most likely.”* On February 1, 2020, Fauci convened a larger group of virologists (Andersen, Holmes, Drosten, Fouchier, Garry, Rambaut, and others) to debate it. His notes are unambiguous that opinion was split: “There was not total agreement about the likelihood of deliberate insertion. Ron Fouchier said he was sure that this could occur naturally... Also, Christian Drosten was with Ron; the rest felt that deliberate insertion was possible.”* By February 6, 2020, a National Academies review he’d helped set up “decided that there was no clear evidence of malfeasance, but it should be looked into.”* Later in 2020 and through 2022 he becomes increasingly confident in natural origin, more dismissive of the lab-leak camp* Looking back on June 7, 2021, he reiterated that he wasn’t the one who raised the lab-leak possibility — the scientists briefed him: “I was briefed by them... After a considerable amount of discussion about half of the people felt that this was possibly a constructed virus and the other half were convinced that this was a natural occurrence. A few weeks later Christian Andersen got together with Bob Garry and Andrew Rambaut... and they came to the conclusion that... this was a natural occurrence.”* On May 23, 2021, after Andersen told him the NIH-funded Wuhan work wasn’t gain-of-function, Fauci wrote he felt “much better now that he is in total support of what I have been saying.”* The most revealing entry is July 7, 2021, describing a National Security Council briefing with Beth Cameron and Maher Bitar: “it became clear that the FBI has no idea what they’re talking about since they are convinced that the origin of COVID-19 is from a laboratory leak. The reasons that they give do not make any sense. In contrast the NSA gave some reasonable hypotheses leaning heavily towards a natural jump of species... I emphasized that I keep an open mind about the possibility of a lab leak. However, in this regard, I emphasized that just because two alternatives are possible that does not mean that they are equally probable.”* When the U.S. intelligence community’s origins report came out in late August 2021, he noted: “They still left open the possibility that it could be a lab leak; However, more elements of the intelligence community felt that it was a natural occurrence compared to the single component (FBI) who seemed to feel strongly that it was a lab leak, although this is based on no data at all.”* By July 2022, his private tone toward lab-leak proponents had hardened further. At a social event, he wrote that Fox News anchor Bret Baier “finally admitted that the 2 recent Science papers by Worobey, Andersen, Rasmussen et al convince him that the lab leak theory is really not true.” Throughout 2021–2022 he repeatedly vents about congressional critics (especially Sen. Paul) over gain-of-function funding, at one point writing the accusations were “totally mind boggling how they are distorting” the record.So the diary shows real, serious scientific engagement with the lab-leak hypothesis at the outset, followed by growing private confidence that a natural spillover was far more likely — a middle-ground picture, not a “smoking gun” of concealment, though Senator Paul’s framing of the release argues otherwise.What does Dr. Fauci write about gain of function (GOF) research?* Across the diary, gain-of-function (GOF) comes up constantly from spring 2021 onward — almost always in the context of Republican senators and outside scientists accusing NIAID of funding GOF research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that they claim caused the pandemic. Fauci’s own position stays consistent: NIAID’s EcoHealth Alliance subaward funded work that some experts call gain-of-function under a loose definition, but it did not meet the government’s official regulatory definition (P3CO), and — critically — the viruses studied could not have evolved into SARS-CoV-2.* On May 19, 2021, he wrote: “One of the real problems is that people are conflating whether or not we approved gain of function research for Wuhan and the possibility that the Chinese created SARS-C0V-2 in the laboratory. Whether or not one agrees as to the conduct of gain of function research, when you look at the bat viruses that was studied under the grant and compare the genetic sequences with SARS-CoV-2 it becomes clear that SARS-CoV-2 could not have come from the bat viruses associated with the grant that was funded.”* Later, describing the Oct. 21–23, 2021 controversy over a late EcoHealth progress report showing mice getting sicker in the study, he wrote (Oct. 23, 2021): “Larry made it very clear that the research did not rise to the scrutiny of P3CO. In other words by our definition, it was not gain of function.” That “by our definition” caveat is the crux of his position — he acknowledges the science is ambiguous by looser definitions, but insists it didn’t meet the formal regulatory threshold that would have required special review.* His private language toward critics is far harsher than his public statements.* On one entry he wrote of scientist Richard Ebright: “Richard Ebright with his gain of function obsession is a total a*****e who is pushing this theory because he ‘wants to be somebody.’” He added: “I am terribly disappointed with Jesse Bloom and David Relman for doing somewhat of the same thing... I believe that in some respects they are pushing for an even hoping that this was a lab leak, which the molecular analysis of the viruses... clearly indicate that it is molecularly impossible for the viruses under the auspices of the NIH grant to have been manipulated into or evolved into SARS-Cov-2.MaskingWhat does he write about the efficacy of masking privately during the early stages of the pandemic when the US government publicly dissuaded the public from masking (even though wearing N-95 masks was moderately protective)?* both in his own words and in press clippings he pasted into the diary: the initial “don’t wear masks” guidance was driven by a PPE shortage for healthcare workers, not a scientific judgment that masks were ineffective — and he later acknowledges, somewhat sheepishly, that the messaging went too far.* Around March 31–April 1, 2020, as the White House debated universal masking, Fauci wrote plainly: “Big issue today is whether w should be recommending masks for everyone. We probably were too strong in saying masks do not work. I mentioned this on CNN (Sciutto) this AM.”* This is his most direct private acknowledgment that the original “masks don’t work” messaging had overstated the case.What does he write about the efficacy (or really, lack thereof) of homemade cloth masks later in the pandemic when the US government publicly supported mask mandates?* The clearest mask-quality entry is actually about upgrading protection, not questioning cloth masks. Fauci wrote: “CDC starting to do practical things that I have actually been pushing for some time. For example: Wearing 2 masks could be better than just one. They did a dummy study and showed that a cloth mask over a surgical mask actually gives a more complete fit and keeps out aerosols.” This frames cloth masks as a useful component of a better-fitting combination, not as ineffective on their* After Trump’s COVID diagnosis, Fauci noted the president “wore a cloth mask instead of a N95 and press criticized him for endangering the Secret Service who were in the car” during his drive-by wave to supporters. This treats N95 as the clearly superior choice for someone actively infectious, though it’s reported as press criticism rather than Fauci’s own stated opinion.VaccinesDid Dr. Fauci express any concern or hesitancy about the vaccines that were released to the public?* On December 17, 2020, discussing UK data with Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance: “the UK is seeing more than just the two instances of anaphylactic reactions to the mRNA vaccine of Pfizer” — he was tracking this signal closely even before U.S. rollout began.* On April 12, 2021: “Got call at 10:00 PM from Rochelle Walensky that the CDC and FDA had called a pause of the J & J vaccine due to 6 cases (all women – ages 18 to 48) of Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis (CVST). I died [sic — likely ‘I’ should read ‘1’], 3 hospitalized (2 in ICU), 2 discharged.” The next day he noted: “Obviously, this is a big deal even though it is a very rare* When an Oxford-affiliated study claimed mRNA vaccines caused more thrombosis than AstraZeneca’s (April 14, 2021), he wrote: “Obviously, b******t. They did not look for thrombocytopenia and so the observation is invalid... not surprising fr[om] the Oxford group sine [since] their vaccine is in trouble and I would not be surprised if they were trying to disparage the other vaccines.” This shows he was willing to publicly reject safety claims he judged methodologically weak, seeing some as motivated reasoning by a competitor.* Myocarditis in young men — a genuine, recurring safety issue he took seriously, but pushed to move past. Repeatedly through August–November 2021, he documented internal FDA/CDC debate over booster and pediatric authorization being slowed by “the risk of myocarditis balanced against the risk of their winding up in the hospital as a result of COVID.” Interestingly, his own position was less cautious than the regulators’: on Nov. 9, 2021 he wrote he was “pushing hard” for boosting everyone despite the FDA/ACIP’s myocarditis concerns, saying he was “clearly at odds with the conservative approach of the ACIP” — he saw them as “overly concerned,” not the reverse.What vaccine did he personally get?* Fauci got the Moderna vaccine. On December 18, 2020, he wrote: “Moderna’s mRNA vaccine gets EUA from FDA. Likely start vaccinating within a few days (likely Monday, 21 December)... Just found out that NIH will finally get doses of vaccine from Moderna... which means I will likely get vaccinated on Tuesday, 22 December. I am insisting that I receive vaccine ONLY if Clinical Center ICU people ALSO receive it at the same time as I do.” That last line is notable — he made his own vaccination conditional on frontline ICU staff getting doses simultaneously, rather than jumping the line alone.Funny ThingsHe delighted in his cult of personality* A press clip he saved describes “prayer candles depicting ‘St. Fauci’” and notes “an Etsy seller has made prayer candles featuring Fauci depicted as an angel.”* He tracked his own bobblehead sales like a hobbyist: “Bobblehead raises $100,000 for American [healthcare workers],” and later notes a “facepalm” version was released “when the original bobblehead sold out” — a bobblehead of himself literally facepalming.* He noted a beer named after him: “Brewery in Georgia named a beer after me ‘Fauci Spring.’”* Underwear merch: “Despite my being kept out of the press by the Whit House COMMS people, the media blitz about me continues strong, as well as the gimmick stuff like underwear (bikini) with either my name on the front.”* Socks as a family legacy: “A few months ago, I was proudly wearing my Fauci socks when my son, King Jr. came over to join me for a walk – and showed me his own Tony Fauci socks. Clearly, I have taught my kids (and grandkids) well.”* The full haul, self-listed: “Continued crazy stuff: Petition to name me ‘Sexiest Man Alive’; videos games named after me; Fauci Bobblehead; dishes in restaurants named after me, and on and on.”He was super stoked about his celebrity encounters* Joan Baez, “meant for each other”: After finally meeting his year-long texting friend in person at the Kennedy Center Honors, he wrote their “friendship was cemented last night as it became clear that we really were, as I said, ‘meant for each other.’” He also recounts Garth Brooks’s wife “just gushing to meet me.”* Julia Roberts fangirling over him: “She put her hands in front of her mouth and said ‘Oh my God. It’s Dr. Fauci, he is here.’”* Brad Pitt’s SNL cameo: “Brad Pitt plays me on Saturday Night Live and thanks me in serious tone after his skit.”* A pop song written about him: “Bets Malone has written a song about me to the words of ‘You Made Me Love You.’ Going viral on YouTube. Totally crazy.”* Obama’s blunt assessment of Trump Jr.: After Fauci described Don Jr.’s “Fauci kills puppies” merchandise, Obama reportedly said Trump Jr. is “a f*****g moron,” apologized for the language, then added Trump Sr. “was a hopeless idiot who was a pathologic liar.”His exchanges with Trump* Trump pulled him aside and said: “Tony, you are losing me trillions of f*****g dollars.” He followed with an oddly candid mob-boss-style truce: “You are playing me and I am playing you. I know you better than you think and I respect you and like you.”* After his own comments moved the stock market up, he mused: “my remarks actually made him ‘4 trillion f*****g dollars,’ and so he owes me $3 trillion.”* Trump, annoyed at having to wear a mask for a Rose Garden event, snapped: “Who gives a s**t about the press; they will try to kill us no matter what we do.”His occasional embarrassment or humble bragging* “Nancy Pelosi... was her usual self with me (big hug, kiss and telling everyone how great I am — little embarrassing).”* Before signing a relief bill, Trump reportedly said, “Anthony, come here with us. I cannot sign this without you being here,” prompting applause from the room. Fauci’s own note: “Very embarrassing. I am not comfortable with this attention.”* Near retirement, still humble-bragging about the humility: “I am really being somewhat embarrassed by the amount of honors that are being given to me and kudos my way... it was somewhat embarrassing since I do not like that kind of attention” — written after a State Department ceremony where Secretary Blinken personally praised him.Episode Transcript[00:00:00] Malcolm Collins: are other people not covering it from this angle? Are you just better at researching? Are[00:00:03] Simone Collins: you just better- I was willing to put down a lot of money to analyze the doc. And it’s not an easily readable PDF because they’re scans of typewritten ‘cause he’s old content.[00:00:15] Malcolm Collins: I love that that’s what we do.[00:00:16] Simone Collins: Yes, dear listener. This is how much- ... we care about you.[00:00:19] Would you like to know more?[00:00:21] Simone Collins: Hello, Malcolm. I’m excited to be speaking with you today because we are going to be diving into the mind of COVID era Dr.[00:00:29] Anthony Fauci. Rand Paul, who’s the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, who hates Dr. Anthony Fauci, recently released a 1,141-page collection of his private typewritten notes from December 2019 through December 2022 just ahead of his subpoenaed testimony on July 29th. It happened a couple days ago.[00:00:53] And I’ve been super keen to know what he wrote internally about the lab leak hypothesis and gain-of-function research and mask policy. So super excited to dive in especially since most of the coverage I’ve read about it has been from leftists and has been very surface-oriented and dismissive. So I, I get[00:01:11] I’m mad about that. They ... There’s a lot in over 1,000 pages. What I didn’t expect to encounter in my analysis was the really fascinating personal diary-style notes that give an insight into what it’s like to become an overnight sensation. His, his entries as he experienced this are both hilarious and endearing and kind of insightful as, like[00:01:34] Who do you know? I mean, there’s so few people in the world who have experienced sudden rises to fame like he did, especially at this time where the entire- Well,[00:01:42] Malcolm Collins: what’s really interesting about his rise to fame is that it was the last sort of engineered leftist-controlled media rise to fame of someone.[00:01:52] Mm-hmm. Like, the media just decided he needed to be the hero that everyone was going to focus on and listen to. Yeah. Yeah. His narrative is the correct narrative. Obey the authority. Mm-hmm. Basically that’s, that was the idea. Mm-hmm ... and the, the media no longer has the moral authority to do that. It really doesn’t,[00:02:09] Simone Collins: yeah[00:02:10] Malcolm Collins: it wouldn’t work. If they tried to re-Fauci-ize someone, everyone would just laugh at them. They’d be like, “Uh-huh.” And in fact, it would probably have the exact opposite effect than what[00:02:19] Simone Collins: they were shooting for. Oh, yeah, it would backfire, so no one wouldn’t-[00:02:20] ...[00:02:20] Simone Collins: Dare to do it, I think.[00:02:22] Malcolm Collins: But the media as a ... We might actually, I take it back, we might have been the last engineered celebrities in mainstream media.[00:02:31] Simone Collins: Oh, because the media was like, “Look at these bad guys. They’re[00:02:34] Malcolm Collins: evil.” But we did it through the, the opposite channel of getting them to criticize us- Yeah ... knowing that the media had already lost the public’s trust, but still had enough reach that people would hear about us.[00:02:46] Simone Collins: Yeah, maybe. Could be. Yeah, I, yeah, I don’t know.[00:02:50] It’s, it’s, it, and it wasn’t just that the media had crowned him, it was during a time when the world literally had nothing else to think about but what the media was saying, ‘cause they were stuck at home, often not working. Yeah. And so there was extra attention. Like, this is ultra celebrity, ultra magnification, and it, I just found it interesting to see what it would do to this man who, I, just, like, right off the bat, you can get the, the full PDF from Rand Paul’s website.[00:03:20] It’s actually really cute. His office as, like, a cover page has this, like, pink diary style summary with, like- ... a little, like, icon of, like, “Do not read, it’s secret.” Secret, really?[00:03:32] Malcolm Collins: Oh, my God. Yeah. That is so fun. The[00:03:38] Simone Collins: trolling- You’re like they’re, they’re[00:03:38] Malcolm Collins: making fun[00:03:39] Simone Collins: of him ... of, of Trump administration. But then, like, so they, they, it, it, like, starts, you know, i- in December of 2019, the records do.[00:03:46] And, and so this first part that I was reading was just, like, the cutoff line from the previous month or something. But already I’m like, “Oh, this is gonna, this is gonna be great.” Because I, I just, like, the first line, you’ll see when you open the [00:04:00] PDF, he writes, “I am starting to collect cacti in my home office.”[00:04:05] So, like- ... what is, what is going to happen to the mind of this, this man whose interests include his small cacti collection? I was just so excited to get into it. So I wanna give you a picture of why I was kind of miffed enough to want to cover this first, so you can understand what, like, the world is saying about this, and what their conclusions are about this document.[00:04:27] And w- what I’m giving you is a, a response to someone asking, “What’s going on with the Anthony Fauci and his diary on Out of The Loop on Reddit?” Mm-hmm. Which I use as a means to kind of see what people are, like- They wanna be clued in about it, it’s trending, but the news coverage is not good. Like, Out Of The Loop is a really good place to find that, right?[00:04:46] Because you’re not gonna post to Out Of The Loop. You’re like super re-[00:04:49] Malcolm Collins: But it’s very leftist coded, so[00:04:51] Simone Collins: I don’t- It’s very leftist coded, yes. So I only get it for ideas. I don’t actually believe the coverage. But the answer that got the top votes is exactly what I’ve heard from all the other coverage that I’ve seen on YouTube and in media.[00:05:03] So what the top voted poster said, Big And Holy, so professional said, “Rand Paul got ahold of Fauci’s private notes, internal non-public notes from the COVID era. The current GOP, being what it is...” Yeah, leftist. Very miserable and leftist. Yeah. “They’re now trying to use that to push punishing Fauci based on the fact that he wrote it in some things that don’t match with the final statements made by the CDC back during COVID.[00:05:31] When Fauci was called in yet again to be questioned yet again by the same people who ignored him and tried to prosecute him previously, he flat out said they are now seeking to entrap him for political reasons and plead the Fifth rather than play along.” Quote from the article who’s, from those who come after and don’t want to click the bloody link.[00:05:52] And this is from the article that the person who posted the question[00:05:57] Malcolm Collins: linked. W- so I mean, we now know demonstrably that Fauci was the person who initiated the funding of the gain of function COVID labs. Mm-hmm. Like, he created....[00:06:07] As you know, it is time for the Mad Scientist Society’s Annual Most Evil Invention in the World Contest. Hear, hear,[00:06:17] ha ha ha! I am Dr. Micronox! And the most evil invention in the world is my shrink ray! I am the Bareness Antarctica. My entry for world’s most evil invention is the freeze ray. Okay. Who is next? Okay. Thank you.[00:06:42] Hi guys, uh, I’m um, my name is ,[00:06:46] Dr. Fauci and uh, I um, and for the most evil invention in the world contest, I invented a uh, a[00:06:53] Microphone (Wireless Microphone Rx): Deadly virus that you probably know is COVID.[00:06:56] I beg your pardon, what? Um, Oh, I’m sorry, I’ll speak up. Uh,[00:07:04] So I took money from the US taxpayers and then invested millions of dollars into the[00:07:10] Microphone (Wireless Microphone Rx)-1: Lou Hahn covert Dana function labs. It’s this lab where we take viruses. In this case specifically, we were working with the COVID virus. Um, and attempt to make it both more virulent and more deadly.[00:07:22] Um. So, , do I win the contest? I win? Seems like I win. Oh my god! What’s wrong? What’s wrong? My most evil idea was a blizzard in July. Right. Well, I went in a slightly different direction with the assignment. You built[00:07:42] Microphone (Wireless Microphone Rx)-2: A deadly pandemic.[00:07:44] Yes, yes, yes. That’s exactly right. This guy gets it. You get it.[00:07:48] Oh my god, no I don’t! How, how do you even build a[00:07:53] Microphone (Wireless Microphone Rx)-3: Deadlier more virulent virus.[00:07:56] Well, that’s a, um, that’s a great question. What you do is you start by [00:08:00] building a regular[00:08:00] Microphone (Wireless Microphone Rx)-4: COVID virus and then you make small modifications to it.[00:08:04] That might make it more of your land or more deadly, and then you test it out on thousands upon thousands of animals until you find one that’s just really good at killing things.[00:08:15] and hope that it continues, uh, the cycle. Dear Lord Almighty! That’s the most hideous thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life.[00:08:23] Oh, well, thank you very much. You see, the shrink guy, uh, uh, is with me all the way. Stop saying that! You know, I want to remind you guys that, uh, in Webster’s Dictionary, defines evil as profoundly immoral. We know what evil means! Well, it doesn’t seem like you do, because you built a, a freeze ray.[00:08:42] Malcolm Collins: he, he, A- and then, and then punished anyone who said anything about that.[00:08:48] Did he in any way reflect on that anywhere in his diaries, or is that just not there? Like-[00:08:52] Simone Collins: That’s the first thing I went in to, to look at. And I, I, so I’m maybe too autistic. Like, I take things super literally. So I’m kinda like, “Oh.” I mean, one, one person in, in the same out of the loop thread said, “I only read through January of 2020, but he seemed convinced that the market was where the virus spread, not originated.[00:09:13] I didn’t see any hypotheses about its origin. People don’t get that he was very careful in public to talk about the data he had. China covered everything up, so there never was and never will be data about the origin.” So that’s not actually what I took from the document. What I took from this was in the beginning, and I could be...[00:09:30] I’m just maybe coming with way too much bias, and so I, I’m, I’m gonna read some actual quotes, and you, the listener, and you, Malcolm, can decide what you think. But what I read from this is him in the beginning being legit concerned that gain-of-function research that he funded has caused the leak. And[00:09:47] Malcolm Collins: they don’t- And[00:09:48] Simone Collins: then trying to present a narrative that it wasn’t, and then every time someone gives him evidence or an argument that it wasn’t, he’s like, “Oh, okay.[00:09:58] Well, no, see, it wasn’t,” and then he just becomes so entrenched in, “It wasn’t, it wasn’t, it wasn’t” that, like, he kind of comes to believe it and kind of gaslights both himself and in the records would never, ever admit. But he kind of passively does. I’ll also... I, I, I went through and looked at his gain-of-function comments.[00:10:16] How[00:10:16] Malcolm Collins: are other people not covering it from this angle? Are you just better at researching? Are[00:10:20] Simone Collins: you just better- I was willing to put down a lot of money to analyze the doc. Well, not a lot of money, but, like, I think most people... ‘Cause this, this, this document is so long and it’s not an easily readable PDF because they’re scans of typewritten ‘cause he’s old content.[00:10:36] So the problem is I think a lot of people didn’t wanna spend the tokens to go through all, all of it, and I, I did.[00:10:44] Malcolm Collins: Spend the token. I love that that’s what we do. Not intern power, not anything like[00:10:47] Simone Collins: that. Yeah, no, no, not, like, take the time to fricking read it. I mean, I read-[00:10:51] Malcolm Collins: We spend the tokens for you. Yeah.[00:10:54] Simone Collins: Yes, dear listener. This is how much- ... we care about you. And also I was curious. So I, I’m gonna read what I pulled that is relevant to it, and I mean, God bless AI for all this, honestly, because if I were just reading this page for page, I would miss things. I would miss things all the fricking time, ‘cause you get so bored going through all those pages.[00:11:12] Yeah. How many things have been missed in legislation, in legal documents because people were just pouring over it using their eyes instead of machine eyes, which are way more sharp. So I just love that we’re able to precisely go into long documents like these, and if you’re willing to pay for the tokens, you know, getting what you need.[00:11:28] So anyway, in terms of what Dr. Fauci wrote about the origins of the COVID-19 virus- whether he entertains the idea of it being a lab leak on January 26th in 2020. This was, like, when we were still traveling internationally, by the way. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. We were in Peru at this time. My dad and his girlfriend had gotten super sick.[00:11:47] We didn’t know what it was. It turned out to be COVID probably, almost certainly, ‘cause he almost died. Right? So, like, COVID’s spreading. People are like, “Huh, what’s this weird thing?” And, and, you know, here’s, here’s his first kind of- [00:12:00] discussion of it. Well, a- along these lines in terms of origin. So he wrote about the Wuhan wet market.[00:12:07] Quote, “It now appears using epi data and genomic data that the first infection was in early December and was not connected to the market... Now we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier. Having said that, somewhere the virus jumped from animals to humans.” End quote. The more striking entries came from January 31st.[00:12:28] Malcolm Collins: That’s pretty striking as well, that he’s saying, “We know it was something around the market. I, I feel uncomfortable saying whatever this could be, but it was not the market itself.”[00:12:39] Simone Collins: Yeah, I mean, he did write, “Somewhere it jumped from animals to humans.” I think he, the first thing he jumps to is this came from an animal.[00:12:46] But again, on, on January 1st, so just a couple days later he, he describes a call from Wellcome Trust director Jeremy Farrar, conferenced with the evolutionary biologist Christian Anderson, who comes in a lot in this diary. Quote, “There have been conspiracy theories that the virus was given gain of function by inserted mutations and deliberately or accidentally released in Wuhan...[00:13:12] The people on the phone felt the mutations around the furin cleavage site of the spike protein could not have occurred naturally, since it would require an evolutionary jump that they found nowhere else in bat nowhere in bat isolates. They bring up the possibility that this could have been deliberately inserted and either accidentally released or deliberately released by a crazy person in the lab, the former being the most likely.”[00:13:40] Which to me sounds pretty damning.[00:13:42] Malcolm Collins: Well, okay, but he, he, sorry, he starts it by saying conspiracy theorists, but then he refers to somebody else. Yeah. Who is he referring to? To the[00:13:51] Simone Collins: evolutionary biologist Christian Anderson, and this person, I think later is like, “Oh, no, no, no, no, no. It, it was. It, it w- it came from animals.”[00:13:59] But this is where it just gets kind of shady for me. So- ‘Cause he’s[00:14:03] Malcolm Collins: saying a, an authoritative source that he trusts[00:14:06] Simone Collins: said- Yeah, that he trusts and later uses to confirm, well, this is why it wasn’t a lab leak, leak. Well, the first thing this person said was, “I think this is a lab leak.” So, but-[00:14:16] Malcolm Collins: and his...[00:14:18] Read the first part of that again. He d- he, he frames it as he first brings it up as a conspiracy theory.[00:14:24] Simone Collins: Which I think, so that, that’s, I feel like I’m overthinking this maybe, but kind- I, I, if, if I were c- seriously concerned that I contributed to something around Wuhan that might have caused this- I would be very concerned about it, but I would never write anything indicating that that could possibly happen.[00:14:46] Malcolm Collins: And- Yeah, he d- he’s basically writing conspiracy theorists think, here’s an authoritative source I use and trust elsewhere He[00:14:53] Simone Collins: wrote, he wrote, “There have been conspiracy theories that the virus was given gain-of-function by inserted mutations and deliberately or accidentally released in Wuhan... The people on the phone felt the mutations around the furin cleavage site of the spike protein could not have occurred naturally, since it did not require an evolutionary jump that they found nowhere in bat isolates.”[00:15:12] The[00:15:12] Malcolm Collins: people on the phone. Who’s the people on the phone?[00:15:15] Simone Collins: But the evolutionary biologist Kristian Andersen, and also- Okay ... Wellcome Trust director Jeremy Farrar. But Kristian Andersen comes up later. We’ll go, we’ll go through some more quotes, okay? We’re sort of-[00:15:23] Malcolm Collins: Okay, but basically everyone authoritative is telling him, and he immediately goes to this framing it as a conspiracy theorist.[00:15:30] Which is very interesting, that he never seriously at least in writing, and I guess this would make sense if he understood the implications of this, was willing to consider this idea despite all of the evidence that he had access to at this point. Yeah. For the first[00:15:41] Simone Collins: time he’s like, “It’s a conspiracy.[00:15:43] It’s not, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.” On February 1st, 2020, Fauci convened a larger group of virologists, including Andersen from that previous call. Also Holmes, Drosten, Fauquier, Gary, or yeah, Gary Rambaut and others to debate [00:16:00] the subject. His notes are unambiguous that the opinion was split. Quote, “There was not total agreement about the likelihood of deliberate insertion.[00:16:09] Ron Fauquier,” or Faucier, “said he was sure that this could occur naturally. Also Christian Drosten was with Ron. The rest felt deliberate insertion was possible.” So it’s interesting, like again, this is where I’m reading, maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I’m like, well, why is he so, so hopeful about, like, every piece of evidence?[00:16:29] Every, every time people lean on the animal thing, the animal origin He, he writes more about it[00:16:35] Malcolm Collins: Well, n- but hold on. Eh, y- you’ve gotta keep it... So this is when he and the CDC is still framing lab leak as a as a conspiracy. He has a debate of presumably the experts- Uh-huh ... and it appears that only two of the experts in the debate thought it could occur naturally.[00:16:52] Simone Collins: Mm-hmm.[00:16:53] Malcolm Collins: What’s also very interesting is the way that he frames that.[00:16:55] Simone Collins: He, and he names them. And, and keep in mind, I, I asked very explicitly for notes about him talking about gain-of-function origins. So there is a very deliberate absence of the entertainment of gain-of-function origins, at least in these written notes.[00:17:12] Malcolm Collins: No, no, hold on. This isn’t, this is a... He was concerned enough about this that he put together a large group of experts. The large group of experts, you need to look at what is being said- Mm ... because you are getting confused about the way that he’s reframing it, okay? Okay- So[00:17:27] Simone Collins: if you- ... but get closer to your mic ‘cause you’re, you’re, you’re-[00:17:29] Malcolm Collins: If you look at the way that he frames the words, right?[00:17:33] He says there’s a group of people, there is a disagreement. Mm-hmm. Right? Now, he, he attempts to frame the disagreement as if it’s a 50/50 disagreement, but we know it’s a group of experts for a debate, I would assume at least eight people.[00:17:45] Simone Collins: Well, so one, two, three, four, five, six, and others.[00:17:50] Malcolm Collins: And others, so- So[00:17:51] Simone Collins: more than six[00:17:52] Malcolm Collins: more than six. So, so- So that’s why I say eight to 12 people maybe. Only two of the eight to 12 people thought, and notice the words here, not that it definitely wasn’t a lab leak, that it was even possible that it wasn’t a lab leak. That is what the, that is the es- Yes,[00:18:10] Simone Collins: that he was sure that this could occur naturally.[00:18:14] Right. Not that he was certain it wasn’t a lab leak. Yeah. Was sure that it could occur naturally.[00:18:18] Malcolm Collins: Sure. Yeah ... th- this, and, and what that implies, and he doesn’t write it this way- He’s looking for- ... because he hides, like, oh, it could be a lab leak, is that everyone else, so presumably the vast majority, 80 to 90% of the other experts they had in the early days-[00:18:31] Simone Collins: Mm-hmm[00:18:32] Malcolm Collins: thought it literally was impossible that it couldn’t have been a lab leak.[00:18:37] Mm.[00:18:38] That is the majority opinion around him, and he is- twisting in the way, like I don’t know if you guys have ever talked to like an annoying boomer or like a histionic person or whatever- ... where you can go in a room and like clea- it’s clear that no one disagrees with them- Uh-huh[00:18:53] and, or agrees with them. And they leave the room, and they’re like, “Well, one person agreed with me, so it’s really more of a 50/50 thing.” You’re just like-[00:19:01] Simone Collins: Yeah.[00:19:01] Malcolm Collins: What are you, what did you hear in there, right? Like,[00:19:06] Simone Collins: ... Mr. Fauci- Keep in mind, this, this is a, a man of, of mature age who collects cacti in his home office, so yeah, he’s not like of the younger generations.[00:19:13] Malcolm Collins: Well, no, but there’s like a specific boomer mindset where they’re like super delusional about stuff like this sometimes. And like it is on full display here. I mean, I get the impression that he really walked out of a debate where almost no one agreed with his position, and the only two who did only believed it was possible.[00:19:30] And note here, even if you’re not a researcher, okay, even if you’re not a a, a, like... It- it’s funny that all of the data he has here isn’t the circumstantial data. Like, he’s not even considering that. Mm-hmm. What he’s looking at is data that you the public likely were unaware of, that it appears biologically impossible- Mm-hmm[00:19:51] in the minds of the[00:19:53] Simone Collins: majority- Yeah, like for certain cleavage sites, yeah.[00:19:55] Malcolm Collins: Yeah. He’s not doing the Jon Stewart thing here- Mm ... where it’s [00:20:00] like, and I’ll put this, the scene here, you know, there, there was a Wuhan gain-of-function COVID lab right next to the wet market. Right?[00:20:09] Speaker 23: the suffering of this pandemic which was more than likely caused by science.[00:20:16] , no,[00:20:17] Speaker 22: no, no, no,[00:20:18] Speaker 23: no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not listen, listen.[00:20:22] But what[00:20:23] Speaker 22: do you, what what, what, what do you mean by that? Do you mean like, perhaps there’s, there’s a chance that this was created in a lab. I’d love to hear.[00:20:27] Speaker 23: A novel respiratory coronavirus overtaking Wuhan, China. What do we do? Oh, you know who we could ask? The Wuhan Novel Respiratory Coronavirus Lab. The disease is the same name as the lab.[00:20:44] And then they ask the scientists, wait a minute. You work at the Wuhan Respiratory Coronavirus Lab. How did this happen? And they’re like, Mmm, a pangolin kissed a turtle. And you’re like, No! If you look at the name,[00:21:00] show me your business card. Oh, I work at the Coronavirus lab in Wuhan. Oh, because there’s a coronavirus loose in Wuhan. How did that happen? Maybe a bat flew into the cloaca of a turkey and now we all have coronavirus. Like, come on.[00:21:21] Okay, okay. Wait a second. Wait a second. What about this? What about this? Listen to this. Wait a second. All right. John. Oh my god. Oh my god. There’s been an outbreak of chocolatey goodness near Hershey, Pennsylvania. What do you think happened? Like, oh, I don’t know, maybe something. Maybe it’s a cocoa bean or it’s the f ing chocolate factory.[00:21:46] Maybe that’s it.[00:21:47] Speaker 22: That could that could very well be and Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins and NIH have said like it should definitely be investigated.[00:21:53] Speaker 23: Stop with the. Logic and people and things. The name[00:21:57] Speaker 22: of the disease Wait a second, wait a second Is all over the building Wait a second, but it could be possible, you could be right It could be possible that they have The lab in Wuhan To study the novel coronavirus Diseases because of the bat population there.[00:22:14] Sure, no. I understand.[00:22:15] Speaker 23: It’s the only place to find bats oh, wait. Austin, Texas has thousands of them that fly out of a cave every night. . Is there a coronavirus, an Austin coronavirus?[00:22:24] No, it doesn’t seem to be an Austin coronavirus.[00:22:28] Malcolm Collins: You know, like, he’s, he’s not, he’s not pointing out just the sheer insanity that there is one major gain-of-function COVID lab like on Earth.[00:22:38] Mm. And it happens to be right next to where this happened.[00:22:41] Simone Collins: Mm-hmm.[00:22:42] Malcolm Collins: The-[00:22:42] Simone Collins: And well, also, I don’t know if I included these quotes. I, I might have included them in my notes, but there, there were also multiple instances of him getting extremely mad at people who brought up the gain-of-function stuff in media.[00:22:54] Like, he was just so angry about it.[00:22:56] Malcolm Collins: Well, because everyone would immediately, as soon as they ask that, it’s then who funded that? Who started that research, Mr. Fauci?[00:23:03] Simone Collins: Mm.[00:23:03] Malcolm Collins: And then people would realize it was our tax dollars that he redirected to something. Yeah. Like, seriously, the level of hiding this and the cover-up of what apparently from the li- notes he knew from the beginning or should have known if he wasn’t actively attempting to cover it up given the data he had access to, Is just astonishing.[00:23:23] Like-[00:23:23] Simone Collins: Anyway, l- let’s keep going though. There’s, there’s a lot here. Okay, go. Go, go, go ... so maybe I’ll give you more fodder. Later in 2020, and then throughout 2022, he becomes increasingly confident that it, it’s just natural in, in origin, and he’s extremely dismissive of the lab leak camp. So looking back on June 7th, 2021, he reinstated that he wasn’t the one who raised the lab leak possibility.[00:23:46] The scientists briefed him. Quote, “I was briefed by them,” dot, dot, dot. “After a considerable amount of discussion, about half of the people felt this was a possibility was possibly a constructed virus, and the other half were convinced,” this is exactly what you were saying. [00:24:00] Yeah. “The other half were convinced this was a natural occurrence.[00:24:03] A few weeks later, Christian Anderson got together with Bob Garry and Andrew R- Rambaut, and they came to the conclusion that... this was a natural occurrence.” On May 23rd, 2021, after Anderson told him the NIH-funded Wuhan work wasn’t gain of function, Fauci wrote he felt, quote, “Much better now that he is in total support of what I have been saying.”[00:24:28] Malcolm Collins: I, it’s, it’s also very clear, and you can tell the environment he’s creating, where at first everyone is saying this was obviously a lab leak. Mm. It, like, couldn’t even biologically not be a lab leak. Take all of the other stuff aside, like the Wuhan- Mm-hmm ... bat lab in Wuhan next to where the... Take all that aside that, that he was creating an environment where agreeing with him on this point is what you needed to do to move up.[00:24:51] Simone Collins: And what- Well, and keep in mind, Malcolm, Chris- Christian Anderson, the guy who just said he changed his mind, basically was the guy in that first quote I gave you, the very earliest discussion. Yeah, that[00:24:58] Malcolm Collins: said it’s impossible[00:25:00] Simone Collins: Yeah, but it could come out later[00:25:00] Malcolm Collins: And, and no, what, what’s very interesting about the he changed his mind is when this scientist tells him it’s impossible, he explains exactly how it’s impossible.[00:25:12] He’s like- Yeah ... look, it’s at this bend point right here. That just can’t happen. It, it has never once before happened in any bat population ever studied. And then when he’s like, “Oh, no, it is possible,” he doesn’t give a reason as to why he went back on that or why he changed his mind or anything like that.[00:25:28] Simone Collins: Well, no, he said that the NIH-funded Wuhan work wasn’t gain-of-function. Oh, God. Actually, no, that’s that’s really bad. So, y- it’s gonna come out later but I don’t wanna spoil it, and we’ll, we’ll just get to that. But anyway, that, that’s actually not very impressive wording because you’ll see when I get to[00:25:46] Malcolm Collins: that in the- So the evidence that the guy gave to him- Yeah[00:25:48] for it not being gain-of-function is that the lab wasn’t... So first of all, he says it’s biologically impossible it’s not gain-of-function. Mm-hmm. Then he goes to him and tells him, well, the lab there wasn’t doing gain of, which now we know isn’t true wasn’t doing gain-of-function research. Yeah, you’ll[00:26:03] Simone Collins: see.[00:26:04] You’ll see.[00:26:04] Malcolm Collins: And for that reason, it couldn’t have been gain-of-function when Fauci himself knows and the reason he’s so terrified is he knows the lab is doing gain-of-function research. So[00:26:15] Simone Collins: it looks like- Well, well, I mean, well, I’ll, I’ll, per, per your opinion. We’re, we’re gonna get there. Go. I wanna, I wanna It[00:26:19] Malcolm Collins: looks like he’s just- Let’s keep going[00:26:20] basically pressuring other scientists into-[00:26:22] Simone Collins: It does look like[00:26:23] Malcolm Collins: that. It does look like that.[00:26:26] Simone Collins: Anyway. Okay the most revealing entry is July 7th of 2021, so this is well after. You know, this is when we’re all, like, normalized to the pandemic, in which he describes a National Security Council briefing with Beth Cameron and Mahir Bittar.[00:26:40] It became, quote, “It became clear that the FBI has no idea what they’re talking about since they are convinced that the origin of COVID-19 is from a laboratory leak. The reasons that they give do not make any sense. In contrast, the NSA gives some reasonable hypotheses, leaning heavily toward a natural jump of species.[00:26:59] I emphasize- ... that I keep an open mind about the possibility of a lab leak. However, in this regard, I emphasize that just because two alternatives are possible, that does not mean they are equally probable” There’s a lot of bias in that. I mean, I know- What[00:27:13] Malcolm Collins: was the, sorry, what was the scenario or what was the group that said-[00:27:18] Simone Collins: So the FBI were-[00:27:20] Malcolm Collins: The FBI told him.[00:27:21] So he’s got the biologists telling him, he’s got the FBI telling him.[00:27:24] Simone Collins: Yeah. Anyway, he’s mad at the FBI for that. When the US Intelligence Community’s origins report came out in late August 2021, he noted, quote, “They still left open the possibility that it could be a lab leak. However, more elements of the intelligence community felt that it was a natural occurrence compared to the single component, FBI,[00:27:43] Malcolm Collins: those...[00:27:45] Simone Collins: If it wasn’t for those meddling...” Anyway, who seemed to feel strongly that it was a lab leak, although i- this is based on no data at all.[00:27:58] Okay, I continue. By July [00:28:00] 2022, his private tone toward lab leak, lab leak proponents had hardened further. At a social event, he wrote that Fox News anchor Bret Baier, quote, “Finally admitted that the two recent science papers by Worobey, Anderson, Rasmussen, et al, convince him that the lab leak theory is really not true.”[00:28:20] End quote. T- throughout 2021 and 2022, he repeatedly vents about congressional credits especially critics, especially Ran- Senator Rand Paul, who released his secret diaries with the pink theme. Uh-oh. Over gain-of-function funding, at one point writing the accusations were, quote, “Totally mind-boggling how they are distorting,” quote end quote, the record.[00:28:43] So in short, the- At[00:28:44] Malcolm Collins: this point it seems he f- he fully believed, like, he had, he had convinced himself, right? Like-[00:28:49] Simone Collins: Yeah, no, no, yeah, he, he had convinced himself, he was extr- but he, like, the... I think for me, what, what makes me feel so, like, uns- uncertain about it is why would you get so angry if you were so confident that it wasn’t a lab leak, you know?[00:29:08] Like, I just feel like, look, they’re concerned about it, I get it, you know, we- we’ll have to collect more information. I don’t know. I don’t know. Anyway let’s see what he says about gain-of-function research, and I thought this was also pretty interesting. Across the diary, gain-of-function comes up constantly from spring 2021 onward, but almost always in the context of Republican senators and outline scient- out- outside scientists accusing NIAID of funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and they claim that that caused the pandemic.[00:29:45] And Fauci’s own position stays super consistent throughout all this, that he, he holds that N-I-A-I-D and their EcoHealth Alliance subaward funded work that some experts call gain-of-function under a loose definition, but it did not meet the governance official regulatory definition known as or, I guess, categorized as- What?[00:30:09] Malcolm Collins: He’s like, “[00:30:09] Simone Collins: Well,[00:30:09] Malcolm Collins: it, it[00:30:10] Simone Collins: only- P3CO. So it didn’t meet P3CO standards, and critically, the viruses studied could not have evolved into SARS-CoV-2. So on May 19th, 2021, he wrote, quote, “One of the real problems is that people are conflating whether or not we approved gain-of-function research for Wuhan and the possibility that the Chinese created SARS-CoV-2 in the laboratory.[00:30:35] Whether or not one agrees as to the conduct of gain-of-function research, when you look at the bat viruses that was studied under the grant and compare the genetic sequences with CARS, with SARS-CoV-2, it becomes clear that SARS-CoV-2 could not have come from the bat viruses associated with the grant that was funded.”[00:30:54] So that’s[00:30:55] Malcolm Collins: one thing he says. So what’s, what’s interesting here is he is... First of all, that this is the craziest thing I have ever heard. It’s[00:31:03] Simone Collins: like- That’s it. That’s what, that was, that’s what I was teasing, ‘cause he’s like, “Well, it’s not gain-of-function per this definition.” And, and then he’s like, “Well, but I mean, so there was gain-of-function.”[00:31:11] But like, it It’s[00:31:13] Malcolm Collins: like you catch the mad scientist who’s, like, making, like, genetic abomination, like, monster things Mm-hmm And he’s like, “Well, yeah. I mean, I understand they could tear a person apart, but, like, they don’t technically count as genetic abomination monsters because y- you could see they don’t fit the, the 50 points in this government document.”[00:31:34] Yeah,[00:31:35] exactly.[00:31:35] It’s like, that has nothing to do with whether or not they are the things running around ripping apart people- Exactly ... whether or not they meet the government document’s requirement for gain of function. Yeah, speaking, so more on[00:31:46] Simone Collins: that. Describing the October 21st to 23rd, 2021 controversy over a late EcoHealth progress report showing mice getting sicker in their study, he wrote on October 23rd, quote, “Larry [00:32:00] made it very clear that the research did not rise to the scrutiny of P3CO. In other words, by our definition, it was not gain of function.”[00:32:09] That, by our definition caveat, is the crux of his position, basically. Yeah,[00:32:13] Malcolm Collins: but they were, but then he’s like, “But they were trying to make the virus more deadly and virulent. They just weren’t doing it by, like, HIPAA 3 compliant standards or something.”[00:32:23] Simone Collins: Yeah. No, that, that’s really his argument here. Like, internally with himself is like, “Well, but, like, technically not.”[00:32:29] And his crux language-[00:32:30] Malcolm Collins: And it’s the argument that the people around him, what’s even more fascinating is the people around him, the scientists who are around him that initially said, “Biologically, this has to be gain of function research,” he, who then argued later it wasn’t, are using this same very flimsy argument.[00:32:46] Mm-hmm. That technically, this lab wasn’t doing gain of function research.[00:32:49] Simone Collins: Yeah. And in public he was generally pretty- Like, level-headed. Perhaps so as to not raise suspicion or show, like, how triggered he was by all this. But you can see by this one entry that he wrote about this scientist named Richard Ebright how actually angry he was about this, like, people making those arguments.[00:33:11] Quote, “Richard Ebright, with his gain-of-function obsession, is a total a*****e who’s pushing his theory because he wants to be somebody,” end quote. He added, “I am terribly,” quote, “I am terribly disappointed with Jesse Bloom and David Relman for doing somewhat of the same thing... I believe that in some respects they are pushing for and even hoping that this was a lab leak, which the molecular analysis of the viruses...[00:33:38] clearly indicate that it was molecularly impossible for the viruses under the auspices of the NIH grant to have been manipulated into or evolved into SARS-CoV-2.” I almost wonder, like, he’s being very specific about, like, the grant, but maybe he realizes that the lab was working on additional things alongside that grant.[00:33:56] Malcolm Collins: Yeah, the,[00:33:56] Simone Collins: the, like- And he’s like, “Well, the grant in the lab.”[00:33:58] Malcolm Collins: That’s, his argument is spectacularly bad. So- Mm-hmm ... and, and you exactly caught the weakness in his argument. The COVID lab in Wuhan clearly was not only working on things on this one grant that he personally was tied to.[00:34:15] Simone Collins: Mm.[00:34:15] Malcolm Collins: They certainly would have had...[00:34:16] I would be very surprised if that was more than 5% of their funding or work, right? Like, that’s not really the way labs work. I know this as somebody who used to work at a research lab that got grants, right? The fact that he is refusing to look at any of the other gain-of-function research that the lab is doing that would have ancillary been made possible.[00:34:36] So you, you get a grant, and you use the grant to focus on, you know, like, the one thing, but then you’re still funding the facilities, the staff, everything like that. Ancillary, he would have funded this other stuff. Him focusing, like- Any person who’s being logical and understands how science labs works would know it’s not an open-shut case to say this one funded grant definitely didn’t lead to it.[00:35:01] And I’m even willing to say maybe that one funded grant didn’t lead to it, right? But that doesn’t, that doesn’t... What? That’s so insanely stupid. Yeah. And, and the, the anger, you can see that he takes it very personally because he knows, I think he’s internalized the truth. If it’s a lab leak, it’s his fault.[00:35:22] And his fault over something that he had been criticized for before this, which was funding gain-of-function research, which like, the EA community’s largely against, most of the, like, edgy, like, very informed science people that I know generally are against. I don’t even know, like, who’s doing it anymore, right?[00:35:38] Like, they’re like, “Well, it’s to learn to, you know, better defend against, you know,” it doesn’t-[00:35:42] Simone Collins: I’m sure terrorists are doing it ‘cause it’s you[00:35:45] Malcolm Collins: Not really. It’s not the easiest way to do terrorism. Mm-hmm. There’s easier ways to... I don’t wanna go over, I, I think I’ve gone over it on weekend episodes and stuff like that.[00:35:54] Simone Collins: I[00:35:55] Malcolm Collins: think so, yeah. There’s easier ways and cheaper ways to create incredibly virulent [00:36:00] diseases. Gain-of-function research, it’s just, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s w- it’s weird that he decided to fund this in the first place. It’s weird he decided to fund it in China in the first place. Perhaps the only thing we have to thank him for is COVID dramatically actually, like geopolitically speaking, COVID was phenomenal for the United States.[00:36:20] Yeah. It completely fucked up China. And, and China will likely never recover from what happened during COVID. Y- shutting down your ports when you are a parts maker in part of an international supply chain makes it so that nobody because i- if one port, part is, you know, two months late, the whole product is two months late, or a year late or two years late.[00:36:42] Who’s gonna manufacture there in the future, right? Like, th- this isn’t just a zero COVID thing, which we don’t know how many people that killed when you look at modern population statistics in China. You look at their salt consumption, you look at their... we have another episode on this. COVID may have killed a lot more of the Chinese population than the government is, is saying.[00:36:58] A- and as well because they refused to use the US vaccine, and they used their own basically fake vaccine that didn’t really work. It, just, like, at every stage. I guess in that respect, he’s done America a favor. But like, it’s- It’s not a favor that was worth it in terms of the human capital cost.[00:37:14] Like, even ruthless Malcolm is like, “No, that, that one was a little too high, Mr. Fauci.” But to do it in China, just, like, everything around this was really shady. And I think here he’s sort of backing himself into, like, a, “Oh my God, what’s gonna be my legacy if this becomes the mainstream narrative?”[00:37:32] And I think we’re moving to a place where it has become the mainstream narrative because, like, I... Th- and I, I think it also is one of the narratives that broke the media’s back and is why people stopped trusting the media. Because it was just so obvious from this Jon Stewart thing, and the- my favorite thing about the Jon Stewart speech around this is Stephen Colbert being like, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, you’re not allowed to have these thoughts.[00:37:53] You’re not allowed to say these things. It’s not the approved thought.”[00:37:58] Simone Collins: For real, yeah. So another thing, that, that’s kind of, those are the most important quotes about gain-of-function research, the origins and everything. I think they speak for themselves. I was also really curious to see what was happening behind the scenes with masking policy, because that was one of the really big things that I think broke a lot of people’s trust in the government.[00:38:18] When at first people were told, “Don’t mask, don’t do it. Look, it’s not even that effective. It’s not, what is it with, it’s not gonna help you very much.” And then suddenly, “You have to wear a mask now. Do not leave home without a mask. It is illegal to be without a mask. We must shout you down if you don’t have a mask.”[00:38:33] You know, like, the, it became one of those... I think people are forgetting just-[00:38:37] Malcolm Collins: I, I think they’re forgetting, no- one, how shamed you were for saying you should wear a mask to begin with- Yeah ... by the liberal elite.[00:38:44] Simone Collins: Yeah.[00:38:44] Malcolm Collins: And then the positions just flipped.[00:38:47] Simone Collins: Yeah, and the whiplash, I think, for a lot of people was like, hold on, wait, so one of these two times, if not both, you are lying to me.[00:38:55] Malcolm Collins: Yeah. And I’m not fooling- Like, demonstrably lying. You’re like, “All the scientists agree. It’s been decided. Only a crazy righto...” You know there’s still progressives who, like, wear masks all the time?[00:39:05] Simone Collins: Yeah.[00:39:06] Malcolm Collins: Because of COVID. Like, the, the, the one where, like, there’s the funny story about the, the couple who broke up, I think it was, like, last year, because one of them decided to stop wearing a mask all the time in, in, in their house.[00:39:17] Simone Collins: Oh my gosh. Yeah, I mean, some, yeah, some people sort of developed COVID psychosis. Anyway, though, let’s so what does he say? In terms of i- the, the, the, the stage one, where it was like, “No everyone, please do not wear a mask,” both in his own words and in press clippings he pasted into the diary. This is such a girl’s diary.[00:39:36] I love it.[00:39:37] Malcolm Collins: By the way, when you do the title card for this, you absolutely have to have[00:39:39] Simone Collins: him- Oh, look at your WhatsApp.[00:39:40] Malcolm Collins: The Dr. Fauci diary. No, you did it wrong. You, you have to have him writing something like, so you can see what he’s writing. Something like, “Oops. Killed, killed a bunch of people.”[00:39:55] Simone Collins: God.[00:39:55] Oh.[00:39:58] Malcolm Collins: Oopsie. You gotta have him writing-[00:39:59] Simone Collins: What are you going to [00:40:00] do? Like, ‘cause you need his face facing the camera. What, do you have him, like, writing[00:40:04] Malcolm Collins: like this?[00:40:04] You have the camera looking from, like, the si- Come on, Simone. Oh, come on.[00:40:07] Simone Collins: Fi- well, let’s see what you can do, Mr. AI genius.[00:40:11] Malcolm Collins: I will. I, I am an AI genius. I am[00:40:13] Simone Collins: really happy with how that came out. Anyway.[00:40:15] Malcolm Collins: By the way, on RFAB now, on all the loading pages- This is so cute ... it now has, it, cyberpunk cat girl animations for the loading- Yeah[00:40:22] it icons. It’s so cool. And it’s really fun, but the thing is, is I also made it so that anyone using our API can, can make these really easily. What I did to make these, which was so cool, is again, using stolen leaflet tech like- Yes ... like, I I found the leaflet tech in the in the ruins. Mm. And then I was able to reverse engineer, what the leaflet tech allowed me to do was to remove the background of video creations, and then using the removed background video creations, I could create simple loop cycles, again, using leaflet tech- Mm-hmm ... to very easily, with any A- AI you have on any project you have, create any sort of animation you want as you’re loading- They[00:40:58] Simone Collins: are so cute.[00:40:59] It brings a loading screen to a whole new level. I love it. I love it. It’s, it’s a, it’s, it’s a, it’s inspired. And[00:41:05] Malcolm Collins: every load, 70 unique loads, totally unique animations.[00:41:10] Simone Collins: Yeah. I, I, I’m so impressed. Even, y- you have separate image loading animations for images within adventures, and images on just the image generation.[00:41:19] I was like, “Oh my gosh, that, that level of attention to detail.” Anyway. Yeah. Love though. Love it. So anyway so in his clippings the initial don’t wear masks guidance was driven by a PPE shortage, which is sort of made clear. A, a PPE shortage for healthcare workers, not a scientific judgment that masks were ineffective.[00:41:38] And he later acknowledges, somewhat sheepishly, that the messaging went too far. So he does realize the mistake, and I appreciate that. Around March 31st to April 1st, 2020, as the White House debated universal masking, Fauci wrote plainly, “Big issue today is whether we should be recommending masks for everyone.[00:41:56] We probably were too strong in saying masks do not work. I mentioned this on CNN, Scudo, this AM.” Then this is[00:42:07] Malcolm Collins: the most direct private acknowledgement- Well, so what I wanna point out is what he’s admitting here is they said masks don’t work. Yeah. And strongly. Yeah. They didn’t say, they didn’t say, “You shouldn’t use masks so healthcare workers can get more.”[00:42:19] Yeah. They lied to everyone for what they thought was, was the best interest at the time. Which I think also shows that his and his entire department was willing to lie and was totally comfortable lying, and it’s just sort of part of who he is.[00:42:34] Simone Collins: Yeah, no, and like, he doesn’t, like, he doesn’t express regret or he doesn’t question his tactic.[00:42:41] Just wrote, quote, “We probably were too strong in saying masks do not work.” End quote. Like, that is He, he knew that the shortage was driven by a need for PPE for essential medical workers. He also knew that N95s were more effective. He also said to the public that masks did not work, and admitted that in his writing, so...[00:43:05] And, and knew that he did that, and then felt bad about going too strong on that because it was gonna be hard. “Well, it’s ‘cause I basically, I gaslit them, and now I have to gaslip in the- li- light them in the other direction.” And then I wanted to know also what he wrote about the efficacy, or really lack thereof, of homemade cloth masks later in the pandemic when the US government publicly mandated mask mandates.[00:43:24] The clearest mask quality entry is actually about upgrading protection, not questioning cloth masks. Fauci wrote, quote, “CDC is starting to do practical things that I have actually been pushing for some time. For example, wearing two masks could be better than just one. They did a dummy-” Oh, my[00:43:41] Malcolm Collins: God ...[00:43:42] Simone Collins: that showed that a cloth mask over a surgical mask actually gives more complete fit and keeps out aerosols.”[00:43:49] This, end quote. This, this frames the cloth masks as a useful component for a better-fitting combination, but not as ineffective on their own. I mean, I’m sure he knew that they were ineffective on their own, he just [00:44:00] didn’t bother to write about it. After Trump’s COVID diagnosis, Fauci noted the president, quote, “Wore a cloth mask instead of a N95, and press criticized him for endangering the Secret Service who were in the car,” end quote.[00:44:13] This is during his, his drive-by wave for supporters. And he clearly acknowledges in that statement that N95s are the superior choice for someone who’s actively infectious. Mm. Though it’s reported as press criticism rather than Fauci’s own stated opinion. But I, I see that as more just him tacitly acknowledging that that’s a universal truth that we all understand.[00:44:34] Yeah. Or at least many of us understood. So okay, in terms of vaccines did he express any concern or hesitancy about the vaccines? I wanted to know, and... Not, not really. On December 17th, 2020, discussing UK data with Chris Whitty and, and Patrick Vallance, quote, “The UK is seeing more than just two instances of anaphylactic reactions to the mRNA vaccine of Pfizer,” end quote.[00:44:59] He was tracking the signal closely even before the US rollout began, so he knew that there were some issues with the vaccine. On April 12th, 2021, quote, “Got a call at 10:00 PM from Rochelle Walensky that the CDC and FDA have called a pause of the J&J vaccine due to six cases, all women, ages 18 to 48, of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis.[00:45:21] I-” Died. Well, he probably wrote I should read. Three... Oh, oh, one died. Yeah, he meant to write one died. One died, three hospitalized, two in ICU, two discharged. The next day he noted, quote, “Obviously, this is a big deal even though it is-” Mm ... “ah, very rare,” end quote. So he knew it was an issue. I, I think, I don’t remember him playing it up that much as an issue in the public, but I understand why he couldn’t.[00:45:50] Yeah ... but an Oxford-affiliated study claimed mRNA vaccines caused more thrombosis than AstraZeneca’s, vaccine, he wrote on April 14th, 2021, quote, “Obviously BS. They did not look for thrombocytopenia, and so the observation is invalid. Not surprising from the Oxford Group since their vaccine is in trouble, and I would not be surprised if they are trying to disparage the other vaccines.”[00:46:19] End quote. So he, he’s, he’s willing to publicly reject safety claims he judged met- methodologically weak because he wanted to see motivated reasoning by a[00:46:29] Malcolm Collins: competing- Yeah. It’s so interesting that he looks at f- with, with no skepticism at his own side, at his own positions, ever.[00:46:35] Simone Collins: Truly. Yeah, yeah,[00:46:36] Malcolm Collins: yeah.[00:46:37] There’s the small amount of- Ever does he ever treat anything with a degree of skepticism. Yeah. The, he, he might have been the single worst person on Earth for a job like this. Oh,[00:46:45] Simone Collins: no. Th- there, you know- There’s[00:46:46] Malcolm Collins: worse. Okay, yeah, I guess. But, like, a- actually, no, if he had just been stupid, it would’ve been better because then you could have y- you know, people would’ve noticed or he, y- he might not have been as effective in his initial coverup.[00:46:59] Which I, I mean, he d- probably did more for the destruction of people’s trust in the media than anyone else, than any other single human being.[00:47:07] Simone Collins: So remember how young men were, like, dropping dead from the vaccines? Yeah. Which, I mean, th- this was a known genuine safety risk. Repeatedly through August through November of 2021, he documented internal FDA and CDC debate over booster and pediatric authorization being slowed by, quote, “The risk of myocarditis balanced against the risk of their winding up in the hospital as a result of COVID.”[00:47:33] End quote. Interestingly, his own position was less cautious than the regulators. On November 9th, 2021, he wrote that he was, quote, “Pushing hard,” end quote, for boosting everyone despite the FDA and AI- or ACIP’s myocarditis concerns, saying he was, quote, “Clearly at odds with the conservative approach at the ACIP,” end quote.[00:47:54] He saw them as, quote, “Overly concerned,” end quote, not the [00:48:00] reverse. So he was much more gung ho, and he was certainly a voice in favor of pushing vaccines even when there were w- known and very well-documented health concerns.[00:48:10] Malcolm Collins: So, so he so he admits that he knew about the health risks?[00:48:15] Simone Collins: Yeah. But everyone knew.[00:48:16] What, what he was talking about in these diary entries was that- They were, the, the FDA and CDC were really concerned over when and how to advise boosters, knowing that it could increase the risk of death from myocarditis, and- Mm-hmm ... he’s like, “I don’t see what the big deal is. Let’s just push it.” He was more concerned about people getting COVID.[00:48:38] Malcolm Collins: What’s, what’s crazier, I, is I didn’t know that all ... So all of the major organizations said there is a risk of death from myocarditis, and they said, the official position, you could get your YouTube channel taken down, you could get anything. You’d just be-[00:48:52] Simone Collins: That’s true, yeah ... nerfed[00:48:53] Malcolm Collins: for saying what every mainstream government agency said, which is that there is a risk of death from this.[00:49:00] Simone Collins: Oh, don’t forget, you could get nerfed for saying the name of the virus.[00:49:06] Malcolm Collins: Which was a wild amount of censorship.[00:49:08] Simone Collins: Yeah. That, that was incredibly ... Yeah. You just, it’s so easy to forget because it was so, it was such an aberration.[00:49:16] Malcolm Collins: It was so authoritarian. It, it felt like living in an authoritarian regime, and I think that’s when people lost[00:49:22] I, I mean, I think that’s when the new right was really solidified as, like, a political thing- Mm-hmm ...[00:49:26] Simone Collins: when people were like- Yeah, because people were like, “Wait a second. I can’t trust my government?” I think a lot of people, you know, sort of with the, that scene in Indiana Jones where they’re like, “Well, it’s with top men.[00:49:36] Top men.” Top[00:49:37] Malcolm Collins: men. They’re like, “[00:49:38] Simone Collins: Okay, fine. Top men are on it. It’s fine.” And then, like, during the pandemic we discover top men is, like, Anthony Fauci, and we’re like, “Oh my God.”[00:49:46] Malcolm Collins: Oh my God. No.[00:49:48] Simone Collins: Ah. Not good. Yeah, so anyway, he personally got the Moderna vaccine, so, good for him. Right. Did he[00:49:57] Malcolm Collins: get boosters?[00:49:58] Simone Collins: Yes.[00:49:59] He, he got boosters. He’s, he love, he loves the vaccine. He’s fully vaxxed. So I’m gonna move on to the, the f- the funny things, especially, like, his experience becoming famous. ‘Cause, like, let’s all just live vicariously through him, and just, like, what a trippy experience he was having. Let’s just, like this is totally separate from lab leak hypotheses and everything else.[00:50:22] He was super stoked about the cult of personality that grew around him. A press clip he saved describes, quote, “Prayer candles depicting Saint Fauci,” and notes, he, he notes in his diary, quote, “An Etsy seller has made prayer candles featuring Fauci depicted as an angel.” End quote. He tracked his own bobblehead sales like a hobbyist.[00:50:43] Quote, “Bobblehead raises 10 thou- or $100,000 for American healthcare workers.” End quote. And later he noted a face palm version was released, quote, “When the original bobblehead sold out,” end quote. A bobblehead for, of himself literally facepalming which[00:51:02] Malcolm Collins: is- What I find interesting is him as a creation of the progressive media, like you have to trust this guy unquestioningly- Mm-hmm[00:51:08] forget any of the contradictions, forget any of the things that don’t make sense. When they pushed him, they created in the mind of a certain type of leftoid, like you have to worship this guy. They created like- Yes ... a hero[00:51:21] Simone Collins: story around him. Like literal saint candles available on Etsy. Literal[00:51:26] Malcolm Collins: bobblehead-[00:51:26] Simone Collins: Yeah, no questioning,[00:51:27] Malcolm Collins: no, you know-[00:51:29] Simone Collins: Full on Craven Images, friends.[00:51:30] He noted a beer named after him. Quote, “Brewery in Georgia named a beer after me, Fauci Spring.” End quote. There was also underwear merch. Quote, “Despite my being kept out of the press by the White House comms people, the media blitz about me continues strong, as well as the gimmick stuff like underwear, bikini,” that’s in parentheses, “with either my name on the front.”[00:51:56] End quote. So he also notes socks as basically a family [00:52:00] legacy. Quote, “A few months ago, I was proudly wearing my Fauci socks when my son, King Jr., came over to join me for a walk and showed me his own Tony Fauci socks. Clearly I have taught my kids and grandkids well.” And then also the, the full hall self-listed continually quote, “Continually crazy stuff.[00:52:22] Petition to make me, to name me Sexiest Man Alive videos. Games named after me.” These[00:52:28] Malcolm Collins: women who just, like, listen to whatever the media says. These people, it’s so wild to me that this happened. My mom even got into this fa- craze, you know? Oh,[00:52:38] Simone Collins: yeah. And she, you know, she’d, like, walk around cheerfully with her, her bangles doing the whole bangle sound they made.[00:52:44] Have you gotten your Fauci ouchie?[00:52:46] Malcolm Collins: Fauci[00:52:47] Simone Collins: ouchie. Yeah, I, yeah, I always think of your mom when I think of Anthony Fauci, he was super stoked to meet celebrities. So he, he described Joan Baez, Beez, Joan Bees? Joan Bees? How do you say... Oh my God, I’m sorry. I’m not old, people. I am old, but I’m not that old. He said that they were, quote, “meant for each other” after finally meeting his year-long texting friend in person at the Kennedy Center Honors.[00:53:12] He wrote their, quote, “Friendship was cemented last night as it became clear that we really were, as I said, meant for each other.” End quote. He also recounts Garth Brooks’ wife, quote, “Just gushing to meet me.” End quote. He, he wrote about Julia Roberts fangirling over him. Quote, “She put her hands in front of her mouth and said, ‘Oh my God, it’s Dr.[00:53:36] Fauci. He’s here.’” He, Oh[00:53:39] Malcolm Collins: my God. I am the type of person who would’ve gotten off on this too, though. I love- You, you... No, come[00:53:43] Simone Collins: on. Like, I think a lot of people would. A lot of people would write in their pink little fluffy diary, of course this wasn’t pink and fluffy, we’re just imagining here, but let a girl dream about these things, you know?[00:53:53] He, he noted, you know, his, his pride and excitement with Brad Pitt’s SNL cameo. Quote, “Brad Pitt plays me on Saturday Night Live and thanks me in serious tone after his skit.” End quote. There’s a, there’s a pop song that was written about- Oh my[00:54:08] Malcolm Collins: God, Hollywood and sucking off Fauci. I know. That whole period.[00:54:12] Simone Collins: It was a big thing. It was a big thing. Quet sorry, quote, “Betts Malone has written a song about me to the words of You Made Me Love You going viral on YouTube. Totally crazy.” Like, I’m glad he enjoyed it. You know? Like, if you’re gonna become famous, enjoy it. He, he enjoyed it. It’s super clear.[00:54:28] Malcolm Collins: Yeah, it’s clear.[00:54:30] Simone Collins: So also he loved when President Obama trashed Donald Trump Jr. On his behalf. So after Fauci described Don Jr.’s Fauci Kills Puppies merchandise, Obama reportedly said that Trump Jr. is an effing moron and apologized for the language, and then added Trump Sr., quote, “Was a hopeless idiot who was a pathologic liar.”[00:54:55] End quote. And speaking of Trump he, he[00:54:57] Malcolm Collins: notes- This is, this is back before Trump’s first victory, right?[00:55:01] Simone Collins: No, this was, this was, This was when Trump was in office. Trump was the president Oh, this was when[00:55:05] Malcolm Collins: Trump was in office. During Trump- So the guy who beat his candidate is an idiot. Okay. Uh-huh. Yeah,[00:55:09] Simone Collins: sure.[00:55:09] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So his exchanges with Trump, Trump pulled him aside at one point and said, “Tony, you’re losing me millions of effing dollars.” He followed him with oddly candid mob boss style truce, quote, “You’re playing me and I’m playing you. I know you better than you think and I respect you and like you.”[00:55:32] Which was[00:55:32] Malcolm Collins: funny. Trump said that to him? Trump is such a f*****g awful guy. According to his diaries, yeah,[00:55:37] Simone Collins: I think he’s telling the truth. It’s, it kind of s- That[00:55:40] Malcolm Collins: sounds like something Trump would say[00:55:44] Simone Collins: I know you better than you think, and I like you and I respect you.[00:55:47] Malcolm Collins: I love the w- everyone else in this is talking like a normal human, and then Trump comes in-[00:55:54] and it’s all of a sudden, like, this completely different way of talking. Uh-huh.[00:55:59] Simone Collins: I got [00:56:00] you. I see what you’re up to. It’s like[00:56:02] Malcolm Collins: you’re, when you’re reading, like, I remember we, we had the epi- the Hang On Live on the great accusations against Biden and it’s like, “And what did he say? ‘Come on, man. I thought you were into me.’”[00:56:14] And then you immediately hear that in, like, Biden’s voice. You know, you, you’ve got to play the character if you want the office, okay?[00:56:22] Simone Collins: So true. So true And I mean, at least, you know, Biden did play the character until old age got the best of him. So, after his own comments moved the stock market up, he mused, quote, “My remarks actually made him 4 trillion effing dollars, and so he owes me 3 trillion.”[00:56:41] And Trump, annoyed at having to wear a mask at a Rose Garden event snapped, quote, “Who gives a poop about the press? They will try to kill us no matter what we do.” Delightful again. Even when someone hates Trump writes about Trump, it just comes off endlessly-[00:56:56] Malcolm Collins: Yeah, it just comes across as delightful.[00:56:58] Simone Collins: And then he, he also has sort of expresses this occasional embarrassment, but it really comes across as a humblebrag in his diary. Quote, “Nancy Pelosi was her usual self with me. Big hug, kiss, and telling everyone how great I am. A little embarrassing.” And then he also, before signing a relief bill apparently Trump reportedly said, “Anthony, come here with us.[00:57:20] I can’t sign this without you being here,” prompting applause from the room, and Fauci’s own note, quote, “Very embarrassing. I am not comfortable with this attention.” And-[00:57:31] Malcolm Collins: I am not? Yes, you are.[00:57:34] Simone Collins: Tracking bobblehead sales? I think you’re enjoying it. Near retirement, he was still humblebragging about the humility.[00:57:41] Quote, “I’m really being somewhat embarrassed by the amount of honors that are being given to me and kudos my way. It was somewhat embarrassing since I do not like that kind of attention.” Written, he wrote this after a State Department ceremony where Secretary Blinken personally praised him. So, yeah.[00:58:00] That’s, I’m gonna leave it at that. You guys should check out the actual original PDF, which I’ve linked in the show notes. I’ve included all my quotes here as well. It, it cost a lot of tokens to go through the document, but it’s very entertaining, and at least you can look at the first page, ‘cause I think what Senator Ron Paul’s, Rand Paul’s office did with this is a, a, a g- a work of art.[00:58:22] I love their, their styling of the first page. It’s not over the top, you know. It’s enough to look somewhat professional, but it’s super mocking and, and it’s adorable. So, yeah. You gotta, you gotta... You wanna, you wanna see it, Malcolm? I’ll give you a link.[00:58:35] Malcolm Collins: Yeah, sure. It’s- Send it to me.[00:58:37] Simone Collins: But you see it says, “Townie’s diary. Do not open. Lock sign.” So great.[00:58:44] Malcolm Collins: Oh my God.[00:58:45] Simone Collins: Isn’t it cute? Thank[00:58:46] Malcolm Collins: you. The, it is our people who are in the Trump administration. These are our people. I love, whenever I see stuff like this, what it reminds me is because you know when it’s like the Biden administration or whatever and you’re like- Yeah[00:58:58] who’s really running stuff? Like Trump can only be doing so much. Yeah. Yeah. Biden can only be doing so much.[00:59:04] Simone Collins: Yeah. Mm-hmm.[00:59:04] Malcolm Collins: Who’s actually operating everything? And then I see stuff like this and I’m like, oh, these people are on- Rand[00:59:09] Simone Collins: Paul, you are doing God’s work. Yeah ... like these, these people- Like[00:59:12] Malcolm Collins: you hired the right[00:59:13] Simone Collins: people.[00:59:13] Malcolm Collins: Yeah, it’s, it’s who they hired because this stuff is not being done by Rand Paul.[00:59:17] Simone Collins: He’s not- No, this is made by, yeah, someone on the, on the comms team or whatever. They opened up Canva. They w- they went for it and they did a good job.[00:59:23] Malcolm Collins: Someone on the comms team went to him and said, “Hey, can I like make it look like a teenage girl’s diary?”[00:59:30] And he was like, “Sure.” So it’s not just that he has cool people who are like on message, on brand, on the team, it’s that he’s open to these ideas. Like- Yeah ... first you gotta keep in mind the environment that an office has to be for somebody to voice this as an idea.[00:59:50] Yeah.[00:59:50] The, this is an official government release, can I make it look like a teenage girl wrote it?[00:59:55] Right? Like- And then not just do they have to feel comfortable saying [01:00:00] that, bringing that up in a meeting. It has to get- Yeah ... approved.[01:00:02] Simone Collins: And like- Yeah, ‘cause like you could even imagine a world where like someone gets immediately fired for even bringing that up.[01:00:07] Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Like, you know? And they need to know that the other people in the room won’t look down on them for saying this.[01:00:13] Exactly. That no one in this room is the- Yeah ... type of person who’s gonna chastise you for bringing up an idea like this, or at least the, on net, the, the weight. And this is where we talk about like a major cultural shift within conservatism and you’re like, is this shift all the way to the top? Is it only in- Yeah[01:00:30] the meme lord factories? Yeah. Is it only in the- No, no, no, no. It’s not just the meme factories, man. Mm-hmm. Down, down here in the meme factories, that’s where we are. We’re like, in the mines pulling the AI like sh- meme lords. Meme lords. Mm-hmm. No truly, if, if, if there was a category of human called the meme lords- Meme lords[01:00:50] we would be among them. The meme lord factories, it extends all the way to the, you know, the senators and the congressional offices at this point.[01:01:00] Mm-hmm.[01:01:03] Simone Collins: Delightful time to be alive. I mean, you know, we felt this, this way the moment COVID started. That was, I don’t know, I feel like that’s when everything-[01:01:10] Malcolm Collins: Yeah, I mean, COVID was awesome for us.[01:01:11] I, I loved- I feel like ... not being in the... I mean, it destroyed our business, but like, I don’t... Whatever. Yeah. You know,[01:01:18] Simone Collins: like- Look, we, we like to look on the bright side of things. We like to believe, as techno puritans, that everything happens for a reason. So.[01:01:25] Malcolm Collins: Yeah.[01:01:25] Simone Collins: We loved. It’s great. You know?[01:01:27] Malcolm Collins: Well, I mean, I, I love the business that we’ve been able to build.[01:01:30] Let’s see. How many people? Over 200 people right now on the website.[01:01:34] Simone Collins: Good. All right. All right.[01:01:35] Malcolm Collins: We’re regularly hitting over 300 now at certain times of day.[01:01:38] Simone Collins: Yeah. Yeah. We’re getting a good click-through rate on our ads, so I’m gonna keep ‘em around. We’ll see.[01:01:44] Malcolm Collins: Well, I mean, this is the thing. When you’re like, “Oh, it’s only, you know, 13 first time buyers a day,” or something like that.[01:01:50] But if we convert, let’s say, 20% of those, which would be half of our historic record for, for conversion, right? Into, into l- you know, longtime users- Lifetime users ... that, that becomes cumulative over time. That is true. And also, any lifetime user we get is somebody who is posting about us in other locations likely.[01:02:09] Simone Collins: Well, yeah, and like, also, what I like about RFAB as a site is that while all the other sites, especially you that we’re advertising against, are kind of like for one thing. They’re adventure sites, they’re chat apps, or they’re NSFW apps, where you’re only going to do one thing and it’s not, it’s not productive.[01:02:29] You know? It’s not gonna make you- Yeah ... a better person. Let’s be so real. It’s, it’s a lesser evil that you’re hopefully gonna get over real fast and move on to something better. What I love about RFAB is it’s like, okay, you just did that. Did you know, by the way, you can use this for agentic AI, and you can use this to dub videos and build stuff and become a VTuber and edit videos and record podcasts and research things, build dossiers.[01:02:56] I mean, we’ve had people reach out to us and point out that like- A lot of the tools that you made could be, could be useful in very buttoned-up corporate applications that are better than the internal tools at major corporations. And you know, like, this, this is stuff that can make you a more productive worker.[01:03:12] This is stuff that is better than what people are working at at many enterprise operations. So I really like that about it too, because you sort of, you catch people with the vice, and then you try to radicalize them into productivity and virtue. Yeah. So we’re like the[01:03:24] Malcolm Collins: opposite, What we’ll be moving to,[01:03:27] Simone Collins: it appears to be mostly[01:03:27] Malcolm Collins: working right[01:03:28] Simone Collins: now is our recruit[01:03:28] of, of like a, like, debauchery trap. We, we like, we use that as our lure, and then we’re like, “Sha-sha.” Like, “Go build something and earn money-” Productivity “... and have a family. Thrive.” Which is also kinda cool. So I like that. Thank you.[01:03:41] Malcolm Collins: Yeah. I always love it when people who like use other image generation services use ours, and they’re like, “Wait, this is...[01:03:46] Why is-”[01:03:46] Simone Collins: Oh, I can’t hear you.[01:03:48] Malcolm Collins: Do you, then you need to leave[01:03:49] Simone Collins: and then come back. What? Oh, no. Okay, hold on.[01:03:52] Malcolm Collins: They’re always like, “Why is Nano Banana on your site better than Nano Banana on the Nano Banana site? Why is Open GPT on your site better than Open [01:04:00] GPT image making on the Open Image site?” And it’s like, well, we do- we use a lot of hacks here.[01:04:05] But they’re hacks that you’re not easily gonna be able to do. But, like, everyone I’ve always known, when they try our image and video generation, they’re like, “That is incredible.”[01:04:12] Simone Collins: It’s really good. It’s really good. I just used it like[01:04:13] Malcolm Collins: 10 minutes ago. And we’re also the only AI site I am aware of, because we do this for image and video generation, that tells you exactly how much something’s gonna cost.[01:04:20] Simone Collins: Such a relief. Yeah, no one tells you. It’s super annoying. And then like, you know, you put in, what, like 10 bucks, and then it’s suddenly gone. And you’re like, “Well, I wouldn’t have asked for that stupid thing if you told me that.” Like, I, I remember it when that first happened with Grok too. Of like, it, when you have like a subscription and you assume the subscription covers you, and then suddenly Grok is like, “No, we’re cutting you off, kid.”[01:04:41] And you’re like, “Wait, well, I wouldn’t have generated all those extra images with your inf- infinite scrolling-”[01:04:48] Malcolm Collins: Yeah ... “[01:04:48] Simone Collins: if you told me that there was a meter on this.” Yeah, I really the transparency’s fantastic. The pricing is unbeatable, so also fantastic. Thank you.[01:04:57] Malcolm Collins: Yeah, we’ll also see. Well, I mean, it’s dangerous, frankly.[01:05:00] Simone Collins: For us, yeah. I mean, not for the[01:05:02] Malcolm Collins: user. Yeah, our margins are dangerously thin on RFAB. Like it could cause issues- Trust me, I can tell ... and it’s, it’s quite scary to run the site in the, in the way that we’re running it because we on, on the margin choose I think around one-fifth what is normally charged.[01:05:14] Simone Collins: Mm-hmm.[01:05:15] Malcolm Collins: Which means that it, with, with model pricing and cost changing constantly, it means we need to be s- hypervigilant. And like there’s been multiple days where it’s like 10K down the drain because something was mispriced.[01:05:26] Simone Collins: Yep.[01:05:26] Malcolm Collins: Oh, well[01:05:26] Simone Collins: I’ve hopefully put controls in place that will help us catch it sooner now.[01:05:29] Like, we’re, we’re more organized now than we were before that happened. Anyway.[01:05:34] Malcolm Collins: Anyway.[01:05:35] Simone Collins: I love you.[01:05:36] Malcolm Collins: Love you, too. You’re amazing, and I think you’re super cute, and you did great research here that is of benefit to society. Hopefully other conservative influencers who watch our stuff now have new information about, about she-[01:05:48] Simone Collins: Well, and if they just wanna, like, just use literally my quotes and just copy our episode but with their own editorializing, go to our show notes on Substack or on Patreon.[01:05:58] I, I, I, I make them available. I don’t paywall them, so just... They’re all straight from the PDF. You can Control + F to confirm, so just, like, use them and make your own stuff, ‘cause I, I wish more people were talking about this. And, and my... I, I paid for the token, so I’d rather that people use this stuff.[01:06:16] Malcolm Collins: Yeah.[01:06:17] Simone Collins: Anyway.[01:06:17] Malcolm Collins: Love you.[01:06:18] Simone Collins: Bye.[01:06:22] Malcolm Collins: However you want to handle it[01:06:24] Simone Collins: I am really creeped out by what Octavian said this morning.[01:06:27] Malcolm Collins: That somebody was trying to break into our house?[01:06:29] Simone Collins: Yes. Yes.[01:06:31] Malcolm Collins: Yeah, that-[01:06:31] Simone Collins: People know where we live so...[01:06:33] Malcolm Collins: Very worrying ‘[01:06:34] Simone Collins: Cause he doesn’t make those things up. And he demonstrated very clearly what he saw[01:06:40] Anyway, okay. I’ll just not think about it[01:06:42] Malcolm Collins: No, but that could be the way the house is designed or something like that. Old houses make weird noises and shake in weird ways It[01:06:48] Simone Collins: didn’t make a noise. It moved. But yeah, it, it could’ve, it could’ve moved. It could’ve been a draft[01:06:55] Malcolm Collins: It could’ve been a draft. All the doors downstairs were locked ‘[01:06:58] Simone Collins: Cause it...[01:06:58] And it’s a bolted lock. Well, yeah, but...[01:07:02] Malcolm Collins: and you’re just gonna get the security cameras all up and running again?[01:07:04] Simone Collins: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I am.[01:07:05] This actually pushed me in a full-on crazy direction. So you know those little puck things that I had that I was using for companions with Rfab, the M5 devices? Well, now I’m making it so that they form a network around your house that can keep track of whatever is happening, as well as make a phone call to alert you if anybody who’s not in your sort of directory of known people appears in any images or around your house at any time.[01:07:32] , But in addition to that, at the end of the day, , it goes over both your personal email, if you want to give it access to that, your wife’s personal email, if you want to give it access to that, and everything that happened in the house during the day. And then based on your own personal self-improvement goals, calls you up and, , talks you through how you could improve based on what it’s seen during that day and has a persistent memory.[01:07:54] We’re calling it Little Brother. I’m very excited for this release. Who knows, maybe a week or something. The, the prototype’s [01:08:00] basically working right now, but I’ve got a lot of work to do.[01:08:02] Speaker 2: So you have a military base and Titan. What is this? Cathedral A giant beauty. What kind of beauty is it? What does it do?[01:08:17] Yeah. A castle. A castle? It’s a T-Rex. It’s a T-Rex, Indy? Where? Yeah. It’s right there. Yeah? It’s on all the books. Toasty, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. High five, buddy. Let me get it. Okay. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit basedcamppodcast.substack.com/subscribe
