"[I]it’s..clear there were serious gaps in oversight of US-government funded projects..that focused on digging up dangerous viruses in the wild. Why, then, is..US government barreling forward with anew, huge project to expand this very research..?"
"Two years after the covid-19 pandemic broke out in Wuhan, China, troubling revelations continue to emerge about U.S.-government sponsored research there."
"New documents obtained through a FOIA lawsuit released last month showed that the..nonprofit organization EcoHealth Alliance worked in Wuhan to manipulate bat coronaviruses, making them more dangerous to humans. EcoHealth maintains this was not 'gain of function' research."
"But on Wednesday, the NIH reported to Congress in a letter that EcoHealth had failed to properly disclose how this research resulted in viruses that could infect humans more easily, which should have triggered an official review to determine whether it was 'gain of function.'"
"US Agency for International Development gave $65 M to EcoHealth..as part of USAID's $200 M 'PREDICT' program, which aimed to..warn..of future pandemics. USAID continues to ignore congressional requests for documents..about its extensive collaborations with the Wuhan Institute"
"And yet, USAID saw no problem in announcing..it intends to spend another $125 M to expand its work hunting viruses and bringing them back to labs"
"The goal..is to collect 800,000 samples in Asia, Africa and Latin America over 5 years..to identify 8,000 to 12,000 new viruses"
"[B]iosafety experts argue that restarting this research before overhauling the global system for managing the risks — or even knowing how it might have been related to the covid-19 outbreak — is dangerous. "
"USAID's new program of pathogen surveillance in wildlife doubles down on its previous failed bet and could cause a next pandemic..It is foolhardy to expand these high-risk, low-benefit activities."
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Covid-19: New WHO group to look into pandemic origins is dogged by alleged conflicts of interest bmj.com/content/375/bm…
"Seven of the current choices..were part of the WHO international team that travelled to China earlier this year to study the origins of SARS-CoV-2 with Chinese researchers."
"Wuhan Institute of Virology manipulated a coronavirus to generate..10,000 times the viral load, violating provisions of its NIH contract that forbade unregulated research that could make a disease significantly more dangerous or transmissible."
"The information was revealed this week in a letter from the NIH to House Republicans. NIH said the nonprofit partner, EcoHealth Alliance, must submit any unpublished data to the agency by Monday to come back into compliance with its NIH grant. "
"NIH’s letter states..EcoHealth violated..provision in its contract requiring a report..should..viruses in its experiment produce 'a 1 log increase in growth.' In other words, EcoHealth was not supposed to enhance a virus’s ability to grow by..factor of 10 without notifying NIH."
Relman: "It’s just another chapter in a sad tale of inadequate oversight, disregard for risk, and insensitivity to the importance of transparency..[I]t’s difficult to understand why NIH and EcoHealth have...not explained..irregularities with the..grant."
"On Wednesday, the NIH sent a letter to members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that acknowledged two facts...."
" One was that EcoHealth Alliance..did indeed enhance a bat coronavirus to become potentially more infectious to humans, which the NIH letter described as an “unexpected result” of the research it funded that was carried out in partnership with the Wuhan Institute of Virology."
"NIH..said EcoHealth's research..didn’t meet..definition of gain of function research..even though the..lab-created virus was shown to be more deadly to..mice with humanized cells."
"'Because a mouse got sicker doesn’t mean it would make a human sicker'"
"NIH was effectively saying the only way for EcoHealth to determine whether their lab-created virus is more infectious towards humans is to test the virus on a human."
"In essence, they are claiming that, because the NIH did not fund infection studies with lab-generated viruses and human subjects—Uyghur detainees? Falun Gong dissidents?—the NIH did not fund gain of function research..subject to the federal policies"
"EcoHealth Alliance informed..NIH in August that its lab-created..coronavirus killed 75% of mice with humanized cells, while the natural..virus it was based on killed..25%..The experiments were conducted with the Wuhan Institute..between..2018 and..2019."
"These results suggest that the pathogenicity..is higher than other tested bat SARSr-CoVs..' EcoHealth Alliance told the NIH in its progress report."
"NIH Principal Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak told House Oversight and Reform Committee Ranking Member Rep. James Comer of Kentucky on Wednesday that EcoHealth’s failure to report its findings right away was a violation of the terms of its research grant."
"NIH..deputy director..Tabak wrote..mice infected with..modified virus 'became sicker' than those..given..unmodified virus..The admission..contradicts Fauci’s testimony to Congress in May and July, when he denied..US had funded gain-of-function..in Wuhan"
"[Tabak] blamed EcoHealth Alliance — the New York City-based nonprofit that has funneled US funds to the Wuhan lab — for not being transparent about the work it was doing."
"Tabak..said EcoHealth — which is run by British scientist Peter Daszak — failed to comply with the terms of the grant, which required it to 'report immediately a one log increase in growth.'"