According to documents obtained from the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health funded research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that aimed to produce mutant coronavirus variants. This information was disclosed by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch on Wednesday.
The files included the EcoHealth Alliance's first grant application as well as its yearly reports. In those papers, it was stated that the goal of working with the WIV was to "predict the capacity of our CoVs [coronaviruses] to infect people."
The "specific aims" section includes a section on "[t]esting predictions of CoV inter-species transmission."
For its "Understanding the Risk of Coronavirus Emergence" study, which lasted from October 2013 to September 2018, the organisation was awarded a $3.3 million grant. The National Institutes of Health awarded EcoHealth about $3.1 over five years in 2014 for "Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence."
Records also reveal that, in July 2020, during the height of the epidemic, the NIH subsequently gave the WIV further money.
The records, according to Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, support the theory that financing for coronavirus research in the United States may have directly caused the COVID-19 epidemic.
"A review of these and other documents strongly suggests that U.S. funding for mutant virus, gain-of-function research in China and elsewhere may have been responsible for the emergence of the COVID pandemic in Wuhan," the author said. "Criminal investigations should be conducted into this gain-of-function scandal."
The files included the EcoHealth Alliance's first grant application as well as its yearly reports. In those papers, it was stated that the goal of working with the WIV was to "predict the capacity of our CoVs [coronaviruses] to infect people."
The "specific aims" section includes a section on "[t]esting predictions of CoV inter-species transmission."
For its "Understanding the Risk of Coronavirus Emergence" study, which lasted from October 2013 to September 2018, the organisation was awarded a $3.3 million grant. The National Institutes of Health awarded EcoHealth about $3.1 over five years in 2014 for "Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence."
Records also reveal that, in July 2020, during the height of the epidemic, the NIH subsequently gave the WIV further money.
The records, according to Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, support the theory that financing for coronavirus research in the United States may have directly caused the COVID-19 epidemic.
"A review of these and other documents strongly suggests that U.S. funding for mutant virus, gain-of-function research in China and elsewhere may have been responsible for the emergence of the COVID pandemic in Wuhan," the author said. "Criminal investigations should be conducted into this gain-of-function scandal."
