US-FUNDED RESEARCH TO CREATE ‘MUTANT VIRUSES’ IN WUHAN LAB AHEAD OF COVID-19, RECORDS SHOW
The GAO, a nonpartisan firm that investigates federal spending, found that U. S. taxpayer money is not the most likely to be the case. UU. de two federal agencies, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U. S. Agency. The U. S. Department of International Development Agency (USAID) allocates budget to U. S. universities and nonprofits. U. S. EcoHealth Alliance .
The report found that that budget was later redirected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology as Wuhan University and the Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS), which is a branch of the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Liberation Army.
The workers’ safety force stands guard outdoors at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan as members of the World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 scale at the Wuhan Institute in central China’s Hubei province on Feb. 3, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
The report comes after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, made Republicans think it’s not easy for the GAO to conduct a “full accounting of the entire public budget the U. S. has disbursed” for Chinese entities from January 2014 to December 2021. Turner and Wenstrup made this request to the GAO in April 2022.
“The chosen entities are government establishments or laboratories in China that conduct research on infectious diseases, adding pandemic viruses, and have taken action through federal agencies to address protection or security issues,” the report said. entities won funds. “
The report says that between 2014 and 2021, the 3 Chinese entities earned more than $2 million combined from the US. U. S. through seven secondary grants” known through the GAO.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) provided $200,000 directly to Wuhan University over a period from March 2018 to February 2020. Neither the Wuhan Institute of Virology nor the Academy of Military Medical Sciences gained cash directly from the NIH in this period.
However, the 3 entities chosen won “first level sub-concessions”.
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The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) earned more than $1. 4 million in U. S. public investment between June 2014 and May 2020, it said.
The NIH EcoHealth Alliance budget, which then $598,611 in budget for WIV for an era from June 2014 to May 2019. This budget was committed to studies to assess the transmission of coronavirus from bat to humans. The studies included extractions of RNA in action and DNA sequencing in bat samples, as well as conducting biological experiments on the movement of pathogens from bats to humans.
This aerial view shows the P4 lab on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Opened in 2018, the P4 lab conducts studies on the world’s most damaging diseases, according to Getty Images. (Hector Retamal/AFP Getty Images)
The U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID) invested in the University of California, Davis, which then gave the WIV $815,109 for an era of studies from October 2014 to September 2019. This budget was committed to pathogen detection studies, adding bat DNA barcoding and rodent samples and testing of human and animal samples from sites in Yunnan and Guangdong provinces. The studies also included testing, cloning, and sequencing of bat samples that tested positive for coronaviruses and influenza viruses.
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Then, the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, a branch of the People’s Liberation Army, earned $514,129 in public budget between August 2014 and July 2019.
The NIH invested in Duke University, which then allocated the corresponding budget—$514,129—to the AMMS. This budget was used for studies evaluating the transmission of swine influenza virus to humans. The studies included the collection of biological and molecular samples. Influenza Arrest in Biological Samples from Chinese Pig Workers.
Graduates wave Chinese national flags at the graduation rite at Wuhan University in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, June 22, 2022. (Han Zhilin/VCG via Getty Images)
Then, Wuhan University earned $240,496 in the U. S. public budget. Between June 2015 and September 2016.
EcoHealth Alliance awarded $201,221 to Wuhan University for the period from June 2015 to May 2017. The budget was spent on disease surveillance study activities, adding the collection of biological samples from Americans in China with maximum bat exposure for further activities through the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
USAID awarded an investment to the University of California, Davis, which then awarded $39,275 to Wuhan University in September 2016. This budget was used to collect biological samples from exposed bats and then to collaborate with the Wuhan Institute of Virology on “viral diseases. “. detection. “
Mike Turner, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. (PA)
“Today, the GAO showed that U. S. taxpayer money is not the same. “The U. S. Institute of Virology, which is known to conduct coronavirus studies,” Turner and Wenstrup said. Said. Digital Fox News. ” This revelation is very worrying because of the greater attention paid to the ‘lab leak’ theory, which suggests that the virus would possibly have originated in the Wuhan lab than through herbal means.
They added, “We have long maintained that other Americans deserve the fact about the origin of COVID-19 and continue to take concrete steps to declassify information related to the pandemic. “
Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Special Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, speaks at a hearing in Washington, D. C. , March 8, 2023. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Department of Energy and the FBI have decided that COVID-19 likely arose from a lab leak in China. However, this has not been directly linked to any U. S. funding.
The NIH, in April, told Fox News Digital that it had never approved any that would make a coronavirus more harmful to humans, a spokesperson for the firm said.
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“Studies we have supported in China, where coronaviruses are prevalent, have sought to perceive the habit of coronaviruses circulating in bats that have the potential to cause widespread disease,” an NIH told Fox News Digital in April. “Most importantly, thanks to NIH-funded studies to detect coronaviruses, the United States was able to move temporarily to expand SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and save lives.
The NIH spokesperson continued, “The directorate also continues to work with partners around the world to force China to fully share data and cooperate with foreign research to uncover the origins of COVID-19, a precedent for this direction. “
Fox News’ Fred Lucas contributed to this report.
Brooke Singman is a political reporter for Fox News Digital. You can succeed with it on Brooke. Singman@Fox. com or @BrookeSingman on Twitter.