Staff Reports
It is about time that the Biden Administration reduced funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China! Serious concerns have been raised about the safety and documentation at this facility, which is at the center of the COVID-19 pandemic debate. It is preposterous that they continued to receive federal funding after multiple U.S. reports implicated them as the potential source of the pandemic that has killed millions of people worldwide.
Biden Adminstration Suspends Funding to Wuhan Institute of Virology Over Safety Concerns https://t.co/wuHtNbamnX
— RedState (@RedState) July 19, 2023
The memo from the Department of Health and Human Services states that "sufficient evidence justifies the suspension" of the funding. Moreover, this suspension has been long outdated. The Wuhan Institute has repeatedly failed to provide the U.S. government with vital safety information, so it's no surprise that its ties to the non-profit EcoHealth Alliance have raised eyebrows among Republicans.
EcoHealth Alliance has funded global viral research for over two decades, and their gain-of-function research, which involves engineering viruses to make them more harmful to humans, has attracted the attention of Republican legislators. We must hold these organizations accountable for their actions, which contributed to the pandemic's devastation.
The audit of three NIH grants awarded to EcoHealth between 2014 and 2021 revealed lost opportunities to effectively monitor research, resulting in the diversion of funds to the Wuhan Institute. When it comes to funding these types of research initiatives, it is obvious that greater oversight and transparency are required.
Republicans have been outspoken in their efforts to ascertain the true origin of the virus and the U.S. government's role in any research that may have facilitated its spread to humans. The recent email release indicating that Dr. Anthony Fauci, formerly of the NIH, was aware of the gain-of-function research is yet another illustration of the need to investigate this issue exhaustively.
It is time to prioritize the safety and welfare of the American people over potentially hazardous and risky research. Suspending funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology is a step in the correct direction taken by the Biden Administration, but there is still much more to discover. We must ensure that this type of research is conducted with the uttermost care and transparency in the future and hold those responsible accountable.
