U.S. taxpayers supported research at three Chinese labs that included risky gain-of-function experiments with coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a new government report found Wednesday.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided $2,168,345 in grants to Chinese research institutions between 2014 and 2021, according to the Government Accountability Office.
The report shows that $1,413,720 in grants allocated by the Manhattan-based EcoHealth Alliance went to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where dangerous research on bat coronaviruses was conducted.
Chinese scientists Ben Hu, Ping Yu and Yan Zhu were the first humans to contract COVID-19 while in the lab researching how to increase infectiousness and strengthen pathogens, according to a report by Substack journalists Michael Shellenberger and Matt Taibbi.
Both the FBI and the Department of Energy have evaluated the so-called “lab leak theory” as the most likely explanation for the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Today, GAO confirmed that U.S. taxpayer dollars awarded by the National Institutes of Health and USAID were ultimately used for research by entities in China, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was known to be conducting research on coronavirus,” House Permanent Select said. Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said in a joint statement.
American taxpayer money funded research at three Chinese labs that included “Gain of Function Research” with coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to a new government report.
Escucha la intervención de Jim Jordan en el Comité del Congreso de los EEUU
“This revelation is very worrying given the increasing focus on the ‘lab leak’ theory, which suggests that the virus may have originated in the Wuhan laboratory rather than through natural means,” they added. “We have long maintained that the American people deserve the truth about the origin of COVID-19 and we continue to take concrete actions to declassify intelligence related to the pandemic.”
The funding figure may not reflect the full amount since sub-awards of less than $30,000 do not need to be reported in government records.
“For the NIH-funded award to EcoHealth Alliance, among other activities, [Wuhan Institute of Virology] activities included genetic experiments to combine naturally occurring bat coronaviruses with SARS and MERS viruses, resulting in hybridized coronavirus strains (also known as chimeric). ”says the report.
Lawrence A. Tabak, principal deputy director of the NIH, wrote in an October 2021 letter that EcoHealth had funded gain-of-function experiments that implied that “spike proteins from natural bat coronaviruses circulating in China were capable of binding to the human ACE2 receptor in a mouse. model.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had denied before Congress earlier that year that U.S. funding had been allocated to the controversial research project, calling it “a modest collaboration with scientists very respectable Chinese who were world experts. about the coronavirus.”
Fauci, who retired late last year, tangled with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in particular over the investigation, telling the senator during a May 11, 2021, hearing that he was “totally and completely incorrect in that the NIH has never funded and does not now fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
Fauci has also repeatedly downplayed evidence of a lab leak and defended the likelihood that SARS-CoV-2 occurs naturally.
In another hearing on May 25, 2021, former NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins told Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) that the Wuhan lab researchers “were not approved by the NIH to conduct ‘gain-of-function investigations’”.
“Of course, we are not aware of any other sources of funding or other activities they might have undertaken outside of what our approved grant allowed,” Collins added.
A Defense Department spending bill for fiscal year 2024 would force the Pentagon to cut funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology as well as all EcoHealth grant projects in China.
NIH and USAID also sent $240,496 through the University of California, Davis and EcoHealth Alliance to Wuhan University.
The NIH directly donated $200,000 to the university during the same period.
Another $514,129 went from the NIH, through Duke University, to the China Academy of Military Medical Sciences to research malaria, tuberculosis and influenza.
Wuhan University collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in its research on viral detection and collected biological samples from people who were exposed to bats and experienced “unusual illnesses,” the report also says.
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) conducted a separate investigation in March that found the U.S. government through EcoHealth could have paid millions more by doubling the grants it gave to research institutions with headquarters in Wuhan.
EcoHealth Alliance President and CEO Peter Daszak disputed the findings, saying the projects were “complementary” and “did not involve duplication of effort.”
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) has called attention to the fact that EcoHealth has received hundreds of thousands of dollars more in grants since the pandemic, and her staff, in a separate analysis, reported that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had received up to $2 million from the A US.
“Washington is losing track of American taxpayers’ hard-earned money. “It is incredible that three years later we are still trying to calculate exactly how many American tax dollars were spent on the state-run Wuhan Institute of Virology in China,” Ernst told The Post.
Daszak also insisted that the funds had not been allocated to “risky research” and that the GAO report now released would show that NIH and USAID funding to the Wuhan Institute amounted to “less than $1.3 million.” .
