NIH breaks up with Wuhan lab but stays in bed with U.S. firm that funded gain-of-function research

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, has terminated a contract between China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, where many believe COVID-19 originated, and the controversial U.S. firm, EcoHealth Alliance, which, according to reports, funded gain-of-function research at the lab. But instead of cutting ties with EcoHealth, the NIH has indicated it may still gift them with more of taxpayers’ money.

On Friday, the NIH revealed there were problems with the way EcoHealth, under the direction of Peter Daszak, managed its coronavirus grant, the World Tribune reports.

Those issues, the agency claimed, included “inadequate oversight in monitoring the activities of its subawardees, failure to report subawards to the General Services Administration’s Federal Subaward Reporting System, and errors in indirect rate charges.”

One of those subawards went to Wuhan’s lab.

As BizPac Review has reported, the issue of gain-of-function research has been an explosive topic, with Fauci repeatedly denying that the U.S. funds the dangerous practice and Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) repeatedly exposing him as a liar.

In October 2021, in a letter to House Oversight Committee ranking member James Comer (R-Ky.) the NIH admitted that a “limited experiment” in gain-of-function research was indeed conducted, despite Fauci’s denials.

Paul said at the time that Fauci intentionally “never fully explain[ed] why [the experiments] are not gain-of-function. His declination is this: it’s inadvertent, we didn’t know they were going to gain function. That is what a gain of function experiment is. You don’t know when you combine two viruses that they will be more deadly but it might be if you have half a brain you know if you combine two viruses it might be more deadly.”

“He’s been parsing words,” Paul stated.

The NIH scolded EcoHealth for dragging its feet in revealing that “a U.S.-funded experiment conducted with the Wuhan lab determined that mice with implanted human cells became sicker with an engineered version of bat coronavirus,” according to the Tribune.

More EcoHealth violations were discovered by the NIH in January.

Ten scientists and health experts from around the world stated in a letter to EcoHealth chair Nancye Green and vice-chair Carlota Vollhardt that the board should ditch Daszak and find a new president.

Daszak, the experts argued, “concealed several extreme situations of conflict of interest, withheld critical information, and misled public opinion by expressing falsehoods” and EcoHealth’s part in investigating the origins of the pandemic was becoming increasingly controversial.

But while the subaward to Wuhan was off, NIH Deputy Director Michael Lauer indicated EcoHealth may once again benefit from U.S. taxpayer funding for bat coronavirus experiments. The difference moving forward? Wuhan won’t be involved.

That isn’t good enough for Comer, who called the NIH’s continued funding of EcoHealth with taxpayers’ money “unacceptable.”

“Terminating EcoHealth Alliance’s partnership with the Wuhan Lab is the bare minimum,” he said on Friday. “It’s unacceptable that the NIH continues to allow EcoHealth Alliance to receive taxpayer dollars even though it is confirmed EcoHealth violated the terms of its grant contract. EcoHealth conducted gain of function research on bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, knew about the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup, and failed to inform the U.S. government.”

“EcoHealth’s dangerous experiments in Wuhan and possible efforts to cover up any evidence may have started the pandemic,” he stated. “EcoHealth should not receive a penny of American taxpayer dollars for their gross mismanagement of Americans’ hard-earned money.”

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