NIH ends subaward to Wuhan lab after continued stonewalling
August 19, 2022
The National Institutes of Health announced it was finally cutting off a subaward to the Wuhan Institute of Virology after it continued to refuse to hand over key information about the coronavirus research it conducted with U.S. tax dollars.
NIH Deputy Director Michael Lauer made the revelation in a letter Friday to House Oversight Committee Republicans, in which he said the Wuhan lab had refused to turn over lab notebooks and electronic files connected to its research funded through an NIH subaward given to it by the U.S.-based EcoHealth Alliance. But Lauer indicated the NIH may continue funding EcoHealth’s controversial bat coronavirus research despite the group’s documented noncompliance issues, its close links to the Wuhan virology institute, and its history of funneling hundreds of thousands of U.S. tax dollars to the Chinese lab.
Lauer added: “Today, NIH informed EHA that since WIV is unable to fulfill its duties for the subaward grant under R01AI110964, the WIV subaward is terminated for failure to meet award terms and conditions requiring provision of records to NIH upon request.”
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released an assessment in 2021 stating that one U.S. intelligence agency assessed with “moderate confidence” that COVID-19 most likely emerged from the Chinese government lab in Wuhan, while four U.S. spy agencies and the National Intelligence Council believe with “low confidence” COVID-19 most likely has a natural origin.
Terminating EcoHealth Alliance’s partnership with the Wuhan Lab is the bare minimum,” Comer said 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.”
Comer added: “EcoHealth’s dangerous experiments in Wuhan and possible efforts to cover up any evidence may have started the pandemic. EcoHealth should not receive a penny of American taxpayer dollars for their gross mismanagement of Americans’ hard-earned money.”
The grant to EcoHealth was suspended by the NIH in June 2020 due to “grant administrative non-compliance concerns.” EcoHealth was reprimanded by the NIH in October when the agency found that the organization delayed 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. The NIH found more EcoHealth violations in January.
Republicans say the findings showed EcoHealth was funding risky gain-of-function research in China.
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