Originally published July 19, 2023 8:00 pm PDT
The Wuhan Institute of Virology received more than $1.4 million in federal awards since 2014.
QUICK FACTS:
- The Biden administration has suspended the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s (WIV) access to U.S. funding due to unanswered questions pertaining to the safety and security of the lab.
- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent a memo to the lab, notifying it that they may end the institute’s access to funding permanently.
- Ending funding for the lab would be the most extreme action the U.S. government has taken against the WIV so far since the institute was first suspected of being the coronavirus’ origin, coming in response to the lab’s failure to be transparent with lawmakers in ongoing investigations into COVID-19’s origins.
- While the U.S. investigation into the virus’ origins has not found conclusive evidence that the virus spread through animal-to-human contact or a lab incident, it has found that the Wuhan lab consistently violated safety and security measures.
- As the Wuhan lab faces grant suspension, Republican lawmakers are calling for a similar action to be taken against EcoHealth Alliance.
FROM THE MEMO:
- “WIV lacks the present responsibility to participate in United States Federal Government procurement and nonprocurement programs,” the memo reads, written by an official whose name has been redacted. “HHS believes there is adequate evidence in the record for this debarment cause and that immediate action is necessary to protect the public interest.”
- Under a section entitled, “Basis for the Suspension and Proposed Debarment,” the official wrote, “Due to WIV’s disregard of the NIH’s requests that WIV provide the required materials to support its research reported in the grant RPPRs and I-RPPRs, the NIH’s conclusion that WIV research likely violated protocols of the NIH regarding biosafety is undisputed.”
- The author then expressed that there is a “risk that WIV not only previously violated, but is currently violating, and will continue to violate, protocols of the NIH on biosafety.”
- As a result of such biosafety concerns, the author “determined that the immediate suspension of WIV is necessary to mitigate any potential public health risk.”
BACKGROUND:
- Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he believes the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in funding the Wuhan lab.
- “I think the CIA was involved certainly in this research,” Kennedy said to Fox News’ Jesse Watters.
- “They were funding it through USAID. And NIH, I think, in the end gave about $26 million in funding to the Wuhan lab. But USAID, which was functioning as the CIA surrogate, gave over $64 million,” the candidate explained. “The Pentagon also gave a lot of money.”
