wuhan institute of virology Archives

A group of scientists tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) are now using taxpayer cash to import bats and perform Ebola experiments in the U.S., the Daily Caller has learned.

According to a Daily Mail report, a new lab, funded by U.S. taxpayers, is being built in Colorado that will import bats from around the world to experiment on dangerous diseases. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) granted Colorado State University (CSU) $6.7 million to build a new bat lab in partnership with EcoHealth Alliance (EHA). This is despite House and Senate Republicans calling on the NIH to terminate federal funding to EcoHealth, which has for years funneled taxpayer money to the WIV.

The Caller has also learned that in late September 2023, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) gave CSU and EHA another $1.7M towards the establishment of the CSU breeding facility and construction of the bat lab.

Greg Ebel, a CSU virologist and project leader for the bat research facility said in July: “This isn’t a bat COVID lab. It’s not a bioweapons lab. We’re not working with Ebola or Nipah virus or any of these things. I’m not interested in losing my job or going to jail or interested in doing research that’s going to carry home pathogens to my wife or my child. Those kinds of things are beyond ridiculous.”

However, the project description for the September 2023 NIH grant for the CSU/EHA bat lab states the bat lab would be used specifically to study those pathogens. The grant was uncovered by White Coat Waste Project (WCW), a taxpayer watchdog organization, and shared first with the Daily Caller.

“We will capture horseshoe bats and Indian flying foxes, respective reservoir hosts of Nipah virus and SARS-related coronaviruses, in Bangladesh where they will be quarantined and provided veterinary care as they adapt to captivity. Bats will be shipped to CSU to establish the breeding colonies as a resource for investigators who study these viruses… Finally, we will perform experimental infection studies of Nipah virus, SARS-CoV-2 and the SARS-related coronavirus, RaTG13,” the description states.

Another document obtained by WCW from a 2022 CSU Board of Governors meeting shows that CSU will be doing Ebola experiments on these bats in conjunction with NIAID’s Rocky Mountain Lab.

READ THE PDF HERE:

(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers

Click here to read the Daily Caller Obtained Benefits of the Project.

The new project has lawmakers who have called to prohibit federal funding to EHA concerned.

“The world just lived through a once-in-a-century pandemic, likely caused by a lab leak involving risky research on bat coronaviruses, funded in part by NIH. Instead of pausing to reflect on this, NIH continues sponsoring similar experiments on bat coronaviruses—with some of the same mad scientists who collaborated with China’s Wuhan Institute — right here in America! You would have to be blind as a bat to think this is a good idea. NIH needs to take a timeout from funding these batty studies before history repeats itself,” Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst told the Caller.

In 2022, Ernst introduced legislation that would prohibit federal funding to EcoHealth Alliance. The bill stipulates that “[n]o funds authorized or appropriated by Federal law may be made available for any purpose to EcoHealth Alliance, Inc, including any subsidiaries and related organizations that are directly controlled by EcoHealth Alliance, Inc.”

“Experts agree that COVID was caused by Dr. Fauci’s bat coronavirus experiments in Wuhan and we can’t let the NIH ramp up this risky and unnecessary animal research on our shores. I’m leading efforts to make sure Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars aren’t flowing to EcoHealth Alliance and gain-of-function research that can lead to a pandemic or be exploited for a bioterrorist attack,” Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube told the Caller.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served as a director of NIAID, has repeatedly testified to Congress that the U.S. government has not funded gain-of-function research at the WIV, from which proponents of the lab-leak theory believe COVID-19 escaped. The WIV received U.S. taxpayer dollars via a NIAID sub-grant to EcoHealth Alliance.

EHA provided $600,000 in the form of NIH subgrants to the Wuhan lab between 2014 and 2019 to study bat-based coronaviruses.

“After what we exposed in Wuhan, giving the disgraced EcoHealth Alliance and its cronies millions more of our tax money to traffic infected wild bats from Asia to US animal labs for dangerous virus experiments is a recipe for disaster. We first uncovered how EcoHealth and Fauci shipped tax dollars to the Wuhan lab for reckless bat virus-hunting and gain-of-function experiments that violated federal policy and that the FBI and others believe caused COVID. Now, we’ve documented how boneheaded bureaucrats at the NIH, Pentagon and other federal agencies are bankrolling another EcoHealth bat lab that risks prompting a pandemic right here at home,” Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President of the White Coat Waste Project told the Caller.

“We’re working with Congress right now to curtail wasteful government spending on virus-hunting and animal experiments by EcoHealth and others that can cause lab leaks and create bioweapons. The solution is simple. Stop the money. Stop the madness,” Goodman added.

The Caller contacted NIH and NIAID about the lab and plans for experiments to which they did not immediately respond.

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Chief national correspondent. Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter.

RELATED ARTICLES:

‘Misled The American Public’ — House Republicans Press Fauci Over Gain-Of-Function Research

House, Senate Republicans Demand Agencies Terminate Grant Funding To EcoHealth

As Lab Leak Theory Leaves The Realm Of Fringe Conspiracy, Republicans Consider Next Steps

Sen. Joni Ernst Introduces Legislation To Prohibit Federal Funding To EcoHealth Alliance

Republican senators, led by Roger Marshall of Kansas, are reintroducing legislation banning the federal government from funding gain-of-function research.

Proponents argue that gain-of-function research, which is intended to make a virus more transmissible or deadly, can help scientists predict and prevent future pandemics. Chinese scientists were conducting the research on bat-based coronaviruses in the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), where many speculate COVID-19 emerged from. U.S. taxpayer dollars were sent to the lab via a Department of Health and Human Services sub-grant, and many members of Congress believe that the federal government should reinstate a ban on funding the practice.

Marshall’s bill prohibits the federal government from giving funds to any “institutions of higher education, or other research institutes, that are conducting gain-of-function research.” President Barack Obama banned the federal government from funding gain-of-function research in 2014, but President Donald Trump lifted the ban in 2017.

Marshall introduced similar legislation in October 2021.

Read the bill here:

Marshall GoF Bill by Michael Ginsberg on Scribd

“For the past few years, a select group of individuals at NIH and other federal agencies have undermined congressional oversight instead of being transparent or accountable to the American people,” Marshall said in a statement to the Daily Caller. “This has hampered our ability to get to the bottom of the COVID-19 outbreak and gain a full understanding of how much taxpayers are subsidizing these dangerous activities. This new GAO report further bolsters the need to address NIH’s failure in executing its oversight responsibilities of federally-funded research. Until the oversight process is reformed and adequate guidelines are in place to protect all of us from dangerous outbreaks, we must not allow this research to continue.”

WIV has received more than $600,000 in taxpayer dollars via a sub-grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to the non-profit group EcoHealth Alliance. NIAID distributed the funds to EcoHealth at the same time as Obama’s ban on gain-of-function research, although then-agency head Dr. Anthony Fauci claimed that the moratorium was not violated.

Congressional Republicans have pledged to investigate federal grant disbursement, as well as the origins of the COVID-19 virus. Minority reports issued in the 117th Congress by Republicans in both the House and the Senate found that the virus is likely to have leaked from WIV, although the reports emphasized that congressional investigators could not be certain of COVID-19’s origins. Ohio Rep. Mike Turner, now the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, accused intelligence officials in December of stonewalling a committee investigation.

AUTHOR

MICHAEL GINSBERG

Congressional correspondent.

RELATED ARTICLES:

The death records show the COVID vaccines are shortening lifespan worldwide

New peer-reviewed study: >217,000 Americans killed by the COVID vaccines in just the first year alone!

EXCLUSIVE: GOP Senators Call Out Biden Official’s Appearance With Gain-Of-Function Research Non-Profit Staffer

Tag Archive for: wuhan institute of virology

Scientist Tied To Wuhan Lab Now Using Taxpayer Cash To Do Bat Ebola Experiments In America, Watchdog Finds

HENRY RODGERS