A decision by the Department of Health and Human Services pulling all federal grants to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology under pressure from House Republicans suggests that we may finally be getting closer to identifying the source of the COVID-19 virus. The Washington Examiner reports that this past Wednesday, HHS issued a notice barring the Wuhan Institute from funding for 10 years due to its conducting experiments with high potential for dangerous public health consequences. The US makes grants around the world in support of scientific research and researchers at the WIV have received US federal funding between 2014 and 2020.
According to the report, HHS sent a letter to WIV Director General Yanyi Wang advising that, “The National Institutes of Health determined that the WIV may have conducted an experiment yielding a level of viral activity which was greater than permitted under the terms of the grant…which possibly did lead or could lead to health issues or other unacceptable outcomes.”
House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Weinstraup (R-OH), who has been pushing defunding the WI, has been focusing on the WIV’s so-called “gain of function” research which involves genetically altering an organism and which may increase a pathogen’s ability to cause a pandemic. And
Weinstraup recently said,
After years of conducting dangerous research gain of function research at inadequate safety levels, cutting off all American taxpayer dollars from the WIV is an essential and obvious step in the right direction This is especially timely as mounting evidence and intelligence continue to suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from a laboratory failure in Wuhan.
The WIV has stonewalled Congressional and other official requests for information regarding potential risks of “viral activity in violation of the grant, but have received no responses.” In addition, House Republicans have put pressure on HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to respond to ongoing congressional inquiries into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week one committee sent a formal letter to Becerra threatening to begin issuing subpoenas.
The letter also went on to say,
Covering up for the failure of a Chinese lab, hiding critical evidence from the American people, and facilitating the public promotion of a false, alternative narrative is extremely concerning and deserves thorough investigation. [We] will continue to investigate the origin of the COVID -19 pandemic and the possible cover-up….
It will be recalled that when President Trump tied the COVID-19 outbreak to a leak from a toxic substance experimental lab in Wuhan China and began talking about a “Chinese Virus,” his critics called him a racist. In response he insisted that his description was not racist because “it comes from China, that’s why.”
Once again, Mr. Trump was apparently on to something. And more importantly, we may be about to uncover another effort to keep important truths from the American public by the Biden team, an assault on our democracy if we ever saw one.
