Biden administration suspends funding for Wuhan lab

CNN
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The Biden administration has suspended funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology after a months-long review determined that the Chinese research institute “is not in compliance with federal regulations and is not currently accountable,” according to a note from the Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS, which conducted the review, also proposed barring the Wuhan Institute from doing business with the federal government in the future, according to the memo, dated Monday and first reported by Bloomberg.

The lab has not received any federal funding from the US National Institutes of Health since July 2020, according to an HHS spokesperson.

The determination came after the research institute failed to provide the National Institutes of Health with requested documents amid reported safety concerns at the lab.

“This action is intended to ensure that WIV does not receive another dollar of federal funding,” an HHS spokesperson said in a statement. “The move was made because the WIV failed to provide documentation of WIV research requested by the NIH related to concerns that the WIV violated NIH biosafety protocols.”

In Monday’s memo, HHS’s deputy assistant secretary for acquisition concludes that the Wuhan Institute’s “disregard for NIH requests” and the NIH’s conclusion that the institute’s research likely violate biosecurity protocols present a risk that the institute “has not only previously violated, but is currently violating.” , and will continue to violate, NIH biosafety protocols.”

“Therefore, I have determined that the immediate suspension of WIV is necessary to mitigate any potential risk to public health,” the official, whose name is redacted, wrote in the memo.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology is at the center of a theory that Covid-19 escaped from the laboratory in late 2019, causing the global pandemic and nearly 7 million recorded deaths. The virus was first identified in Wuhan.

The US intelligence community has yet to come to a conclusion about where the virus originated.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a declassified report last month which stated that the US intelligence community was unable to determine whether the lab researchers who fell ill in the fall of 2019 were infected with Covid-19, but identified safety and security issues at the lab. Many other experts say the evidence suggests the coronavirus likely arose naturally and spread to humans at a seafood market in Wuhan.

The National Institutes of Health notified EcoHealth Alliance, a US-based organization that received a 2014 NIH grant that was channeled in part to the Wuhan Institute, in April 2020 that it was reviewing the allegations that linked the Wuhan Institute to the coronavirus pandemic. And in July of that year, NIH told EcoHealth that it had received reports of “biosafety concerns” at the lab.

The collaboration between the organization and Chinese scientists accompanied broader efforts by US scientists to engage with researchers around the world to better understand animal viruses in their regions that could pose a risk to humans

Researchers at the institute studied bat coronaviruses, but have repeatedly denied that the lab was linked to the outbreak of the virus that causes Covid-19.

Instead, they have pointed to his contributions to understanding the virus, which included publishing information in early 2020 identifying what was at the time the closest known relative virus to the one that causes Covid-19.

China has prevented international scientists from freely exploring all hypotheses about how the virus arose, hampering research that could have shed light on the origin of the outbreak.

The World Health Organization has repeatedly called for more research into the country, including a lab audit and studies that could find evidence of the virus’ natural occurrence.

Beijing has defended its transparency and denounced what it sees as a US-led “politicization” of the issue as it tries to distance itself from the finger.

Chinese officials have suggested the virus did not originate within the country’s borders and called on the United States to audit its own laboratories, without providing a clear rationale for why that would be necessary.