Coronavirus: Thread

[grarpamp]

FBI Launched Inquiry Into NIH Funding Of Wuhan Lab, Emails Show

https://www.theepochtimes.com/fbi-launched-inquiry-into-nih-funding-of-wuhan-lab-emails-show_4601663.html
https://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/JW-v-HHS-NIH-EcoHealth-Wuhan-Prod-7-00696-pgs-626-630.pdf
https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8674931
https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9819304
https://www.theepochtimes.com/newly-released-documents-show-nih-funded-gain-of-function-research-in-china-experts_4061437.html
https://www.theepochtimes.com/memo-reveals-state-department-assessed-in-early-2020-lab-leak-was-most-likely-origin-of-covid-19_4387879.html
https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/State-Department-FOIA-An-Analysis-of-Circumstantial-Evidence-for-Wuhan-Labs-as-the-Source-of-the-Coronavirus.pdf
https://www.theepochtimes.com/footage-of-bats-kept-in-wuhan-lab-fuels-scrutiny-over-its-research_3871801.html


The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched an
inquiry into the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
funding of bat research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology,
newly released emails show.

The interest from the top U.S. intelligence agency adds to
the international scrutiny on the Wuhan facility, which
houses one of China’s highest-level biosecurity labs that
has been considered a possible source of the COVID-19
pandemic.

“In preparation for our call on Tuesday, Erik [Stemmy]
(cc'd) has provided responses to your initial questions
below (also attached),” wrote Ashley Sanders, an
investigation officer at the NIH’s division of program
integriy, in an email (pdf) dated May 22, 2020 with the
subject “Grant Questions – FBI Inquiry,” and directed
to FBI agent David Miller.

The email was obtained by government transparency watchdog
Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act
lawsuit, which asked for records of communications,
contracts, and agreements with the Wuhan Institute of
Virology (WIV).

The scope of the inquiry is unclear because the rest of the
email correspondence, five pages in total, are entirely
redacted. But the name of the email attachment “SF 424
AI110964-06 (received date 11/05/2018),” corresponds to
the NIH grant “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus
Emergence.”

The project in question is headed by Peter Daszak of
EcoHealth Alliance, which then funnels money to the lab in
Wuhan. From 2014 to 2019, the New York nonprofit received
six yearly grants totaling $3,748,715 from the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under the NIH
to fund the project, which was expected to end in 2026.

The FBI inquiry had focused on at least two of the grants,
in 2014 and 2019 respectively, the email subject line
suggests.

The 2014 grant aimed to “understand what factors increase
the risk of the next CoV emerging in people by studying CoV
diversity in a critical zoonotic reservoir (bats), at sites
of high risk for emergence (wildlife markets) in an
emerging disease hotspot (China),” according to the
project description. Specifically, the researchers would
assess the coronavirus spillover potential, develop
predictive models of bat coronavirus emergence risk, and
use virus infection experiments as well as “reverse
genetics” to test the virus’s transmission between
species.

Peter DaszakPeter Daszak WHO team member Peter Daszak
leaves his hotel after the World Health Organization (WHO)
team wrapped up its investigation into the origins of the
COVID-19 coronavirus in Wuhan in China's central Hubei
province on February 10, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP via
Getty Images)
In the project summary for the 2019 grant, EcoHealth stated
that they had found that “bats in southern China harbor
an extraordinary diversity of SARSr-CoVs,” and some of
those viruses can “infect humanized mouse models causing
SARS-like illness, and evade available therapies or
vaccines.”

Recently disclosed documents show that, under one grant,
the WIV had conducted an experiment that resulted in a more
potent version of a bat coronavirus.

In the project that took place under the fifth grant, from
June 2018 to May 2019, the researchers infected two groups
of laboratory mice, one of which with a modified version of
a bat coronavirus already existing in nature, and another
with the original virus.

Those infected with the modified version became sicker,
Lawrence Tabak, a principal deputy director at the NIH,
wrote in a letter in response to a Congressional inquiry.
(not sure if we need to specify who it’s from)

“As sometimes occurs in science, this was an unexpected
result of the research, as opposed to something that the
researchers set out to do,” wrote Tabak. He acknowledged
that EcoHealth had violated the grant terms by failing to
notify the NIH “right away” about the finding.

wuhan labwuhan lab Security personnel keep watch outside
the Wuhan Institute of Virology during the visit by the
World Health Organization (WHO) team tasked with
investigating the origins of the coronavirus disease
(COVID-19), in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Feb. 3,
2021. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

The experiment appears to fit the definition of
gain-of-function research regardless of its intentions,
according to some experts.

“The genetic manipulation of both MERS and the SARS
conducted in Wuhan clearly constituted gain-of-function
experiments,” Jonathan Latham, executive director of The
Bioscience Research Project, previously told The Epoch
Times. He said the NIH’s wording choice “unexpected”
was “absurd,” “when clearly these experiments were
expressly designed to detect increased pathogenicity.”

An April 2020 memo (pdf) reveals that the State Department
assessed lab leak as the most likely origin of COVID-19.

“The Wuhan labs remained the most likely yet least
probed. All other possible places of virus’ origin have
been proven false,” the memo stated, citing
circumstantial evidence such as safety standard lapses,
experiments on bats by WIV researchers, and the lab’s
role in a “deliberate coverup, especially destruction of
any evidence of leaks and disappearance of its employees as
Patient Zero.”