Rosendale cites sources that don't support COVID-19 claims

We’re following up on a story from earlier in the week -- KFF Health News said a fundraising ad for U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale made false claims about COVID-19.

The online ad shows Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute Of Allergy and Infectious Disease, being swarmed by bats. The ad says Fauci brought COVID to Montana one year before COVID broke out in the U.S.

The KFF article says Rosendale's statements seem to come from a 2016 study at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton that involved coronavirus and fruit bats. The strain reportedly didn't trigger a widespread infection in the animals.

We asked Rosendale for a response.

“I haven’t seen that article,” Rosendale said in an interview with NBC Montana. “The facts that have been distributed to us here in Congress are that Anthony Fauci brought COVID-19 virus to the lab in the Bitterroot.”

Rosendale stood by claims Fauci brought COVID-19 to a research lab in Hamilton.

“And I haven’t had any information that was brought before us here in Congress to prove otherwise,” Rosendale said.

The original story discussed how Montana researchers were looking at a different virus, not the COVID-causing SARS-COV-2.

We asked if he could share the information with NBC Montana, and he agreed.

“We will send that information to you, because we have not had anyone share information with us to refute the fact that Anthony Fauci brought -- a year before COVID broke out -- he brought the COVID virus to a lab there in the Bitterroot,” Rosendale said.

Rosendale's team sent talking points Rosendale made on the House floor with links to several articles.

The amendment was to prohibit funds to Rocky Mountain Lab and reduce the salary of a lead researcher at the facility to $1.

By unanimous consent, Rosendale’s amendment was withdrawn.

The links sent were disputed in the KFF article and were outdated articles.

According to the CDC, the first detection of COVID-19 in U.S. labs was January 2020.

We reached out to Rosendale’s representative to see if the team had any other information they could send us. They referred us to the original information they shared.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases gave NBC Montana a statement in response to Rosendale’s ad.

“The claim in the campaign ad is false. The claim concerning bat research conducted at RML is also false. A study by RML scientists published in 2018 in the journal Viruses involved studying WIV-1, a coronavirus, in Egyptian fruit bats. WIV-1 is a different virus than the SARS-CoV-2 virus involved with the COVID-19 pandemic, and this study did not involve gain-of-function research. The virus used in these experiments was not shipped from China.”

The full KFF article can be read here.