The Biden administration announced the suspension of funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology after determining the institute isn’t compliant with federal regulations.
If you said U.S. taxpayers funded the controversial lab the past three years, you’d be censored on social media or labeled a conspiracy theorist.
However, the U.S. government will finally cut funding to the lab that conducted gain-of-function research to develop pathogens more transmissible to humans.
This comes several years and millions of deaths too late.
US Finally Cancels Funding To Wuhan Lab https://t.co/BP99ntwXuP
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 19, 2023
The Biden administration has halted the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s access to federal funding after the lab failed to provide documents about safety and security measures
This just happened…. now???
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 19, 2023
According to Bloomberg, who first reported the development, the lab’s failure to provide documents concerning safety and security measures prompted the funding cut.
Zero Hedge shared information regarding the memo obtained by Bloomberg.
The Department of Health and Human Services on Monday notified the WIV of the suspension, and told the lab that it’s looking to cut it off permanently following a review which began last September that concluded that the Wuhan lab isn’t compliant with federal regulations.
This means that the WIV won’t receive further federal funding.
Penalizing the lab is the most drastic action the US has taken so far over its failure to share documentation on biosafety practices amid ongoing investigations into Covid-19’s origins. The institute has became become a flashpoint in discussions of how the pandemic, which has killed some 7 million people, started, with some, including FBI Director Christopher Wray, suspecting it could have originated at the facility. -Bloomberg
In 2014, the NIH awarded EcoHealth Alliance and its president Peter Daszak an grant for “understanding the risk of bat coronavirus emergence.” The WIV received a subaward of that grant.
The first $666,442 installment of EcoHealth’s $3.7 million NIH grant was paid in June 2014, with similar annual payments through May 2019 under the “Understanding The Risk Of Bat Coronavirus Emergence” project.
Biden cuts off funding to Wuhan Institute of Virology linked to COVID-19 outbreak: Report https://t.co/q3g9x61OGI
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) July 19, 2023
The Washington Examiner added:
In June, President Joe Biden authorized the release of a declassified report outlining the lack of consensus among U.S. intelligence agencies regarding COVID-19’s origin and that the federal government will “continue to assess that both a natural and laboratory-associated origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection.”
The report does note that multiple scientists working at WIV fell ill in the fall of 2019 and that the institute frequently did not adhere to safety protocols. Multiple reports have singled out researcher Ben Hu, who studied coronaviruses in programs funded by the U.S., as one of the first scientists to suffer symptoms.
The White House did not return requests for comment on the topic, but a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson told Bloomberg that “this action will ensure the [Wuhan Institute of Virology] does not receive another dollar of federal funding.”
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