A judge in the Eastern District of Virginia has ordered the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide unredacted copies of certain documents to ascertain whether NIH improperly redacted them.
This ruling pertains to a lawsuit filed by Empower Oversight, a watchdog group seeking information on the NIH’s deletion of Covid-19 genetic data at the request of a Chinese researcher.
The judge’s order was issued in connection with NIH’s motion for summary judgment, which Empower Oversight is contesting.
The judge has ordered NIH to provide to the court unredacted versions of exhibits cited by Empower Oversight.
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The judge has also left in place, for now, a magistrate’s order that, oddly, sealed information that had already been made public: namely the name of a Chinese researcher. NIH had previously disclosed that information in other litigation, and it was referenced in an article cited in the NIH’s own filings. Empower Oversight has argued the judge’s order is erroneous since the information is already available.
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