Sen. Joni Ernst and Rep. Mike Gallagher demand that the Defense Department’s inspector general investigate more than $50 million in defense grants to Chinese pandemic research institutions, including those based in Wuhan, the city where COVID emerged -19 in 2019.
“A thorough review of these matters is crucial to identifying potential national security threats that could result from the Pentagon’s acquisition of technology from Chinese companies or from dangerous experiments being carried out in foreign laboratories with poor security conditions.” , Ernst (R-Iowa) and Gallagher (R-Wis.), wrote Thursday in a letter to Pentagon watchdog Robert Storch.
The National Defense Authorization Act of 2024, passed last month, included an amendment by lawmakers that directed the IG’s office to review Pentagon funding of risky research into pathogens with pandemic potential or “chimeric versions” of viruses in nations. foreigners during the last decade.
“Tens of millions of Department of Defense dollars have been given to our enemies. “This is not only a massive accounting error, but a waste of taxpayer money and a threat to our national security,” Gallagher told The Post.
Sen. Joni Ernst and Rep. Mike Gallagher demanded that the Pentagon inspector general investigate more than $50 million in subsidies to Chinese pandemic research labs. fake images
“Our amendment that was signed into law last year requires the Pentagon Inspector General to get to the bottom of this, and it’s time for us to act with a sense of urgency to fix this problem, protect taxpayer dollars, and ensure that neither a single cent finances our adversaries. like the Chinese Communist Party.”
The law specifically targets Chinese government-linked research at the now infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Beijing Academy of Military Medical Sciences.
“Tens of millions of Department of Defense dollars have been given to our enemies. “This is not only a massive accounting error, but a waste of taxpayer money and a threat to our national security,” Gallagher told The Post. AP
“Due to the lack of accuracy and completeness of federal spending data, only the DOD OIG has the ability to conduct these investigations,” the lawmakers told Storch before laying out previous attempts to quantify the higher amount.
In May 2023, Ernst’s office announced that a joint investigation with taxpayer watchdog OpenTheBooks found that more than $490 million in US funds flowed to Chinese organizations between 2017 and 2022, of which $51.6 million of dollars came from the Department of Defense.
But Ernst and Gallagher say “this may be just the tip of the iceberg of taxpayer dollars from DOD and other government agencies, contractors and grantees floating to China.”
In May 2023, Ernst’s office announced that more than $490 million in U.S. funds flowed to Chinese organizations between 2017 and 2022, of which $51.6 million came from the Pentagon. AP The Manhattan-based EcoHealth Alliance used American taxpayer money to fund more than $1.4 million in research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology between 2014 and 2021, including risky gain-of-function experiments with coronaviruses. of bats. AP
Through grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Manhattan-based EcoHealth Alliance used U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund more than $1.4 million in research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology from 2014 to 2021, including risky gain-of-function experiments with bat coronaviruses.
The Government Accountability Office confirmed the funding amounts last year after watchdog group White Coat Waste first exposed the grants in April 2020.
However, these were not disclosed to USAspending.gov, a public database of all government grants, and EcoHealth has a “history of circumventing federal reporting rules” and hiding the scope of its research plans, they said. Ernst and Gallagher.
A spokesperson for EcoHealth Alliance argued that the nonprofit “did not conceal spending through a grant,” stating that “these grants were a matter of public record” and “submitted regular progress reports of its activities to the NIH.” “.
EcoHealth has received more than $47 million in research funding from the Pentagon, according to USAspending.gov. AFP via Getty Images
In 2018, EcoHealth submitted a grant proposal called Project DEFUSE to a Pentagon sub-agency that would have tested the ability to increase the transmissibility of coronaviruses from bats to humans.
The proposal had omitted plans to conduct experiments with SARS-like viruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to documents obtained by US Right To Know, and EcoHealth president Peter Daszak said it would “downplay the non-US approach.” of this initiative”. proposal” by leaving out the Chinese researcher involved.
The grant application was rejected, but EcoHealth has received more than $47 million in research funding from the Pentagon, according to USAspending.gov.
A January 2023 federal audit also found that EcoHealth hid nearly $600,000 in funds for the Wuhan Institute and did not immediately notify the NIH when its research “showed evidence of further growth of the virus.” AFP via Getty Images
A January 2023 audit by the U.S. Health and Human Services Inspector General’s office also found that EcoHealth concealed nearly $600,000 in funds sent to the Wuhan Institute and did not immediately notify the NIH when its investigation “showed evidence of further growth of the virus.”
The two officials who oversaw the grants — former NIH director Francis Collins and former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci — have repeatedly denied that these experiments constitute “gain-of-function” research. .
In total, Ernst and Gallagher said the nonprofit scientific research organization “concealed spending more than $1 million of American taxpayer money on risky bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.” ”.
Officials who oversaw the grants, including former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, have denied that these experiments constitute “gain-of-function” research. fake images
They noted that the Department of Defense “is currently providing $3 million to EcoHealth to study ‘wildlife viral spill in the Philippines,’ $3 million for biosurveillance of viral spill in India, and $5 million to study ‘high-risk pathogens’ in Liberia. .”
“Taxpayers deserve to know how much of their money is sent to China and why Washington continues to collect and create deadly super viruses, which could pose threats to our national security,” Ernst told The Post.
“COVID-19, which likely began with a leak from China’s Wuhan Institute, should have given pause to the manipulation of pathogens with pandemic potential, yet the Biden administration continues to fund risky research around the world.”
The Government Accountability Office confirmed NIH funding under then-director Francis Collins last year after the grants were first exposed by watchdog group White Coat Waste in April 2020. AFP via Getty Images
Last year, both the Department of Energy and the FBI concluded that an accidental lab leak was the most likely explanation for the COVID-19 pandemic, while other US intelligence agencies either failed to determine the origin of the virus or said that “ “It was not adapted to the laboratory.” .”
“We can’t trust the mad scientists at EcoHealth to get their hands on taxpayer money or bats again,” Ernst added. “This investigation is the first step in providing long-needed transparency and accountability into the indefensible ways Washington is spending our defense dollars.”
The Pentagon inspector general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The EcoHealth spokesperson told The Post that it “has never conducted gain-of-function research, despite repeated unsubstantiated accusations to the contrary. “These claims are based on a misinterpretation or intentional misrepresentation of actual research conducted.”
“Because SARS-related research by EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology dealt with bat coronaviruses that had never been shown to infect people, much less cause significant morbidity and/or mortality in humans, by definition it was not a gain from -Research functions,” the representative added.
But the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic has previously revealed documents showing that Fauci’s NIAID avoided a government pause on gain-of-function research to restart experiments in Wuhan in 2017.
“EcoHealth’s claim that it never conducted gain-of-function research is false. “Knowingly, intentionally and blatantly liars,” Dr. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, told The Post, adding that the Wuhan-based experiments “met the official and legally controlling definition” that were in place. between 2014 and 2018.
It also violated the definition of “enhanced investigation of potential pandemic pathogens” set out in federal policy from 2018 to the present, he said, which are defined as experiments that “are reasonably anticipated to create, transfer or use” such pathogens.
“Nothing in the definitions limits coverage to pathogens that have previously been shown to infect humans,” Ebright also noted.
EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that EcoHealth Alliance has provided more than $47 million in funding for research projects at the Wuhan Institute of Virology since 2008. In fact, that is the amount EcoHealth Alliance has received in research funding from the Pentagon during that period.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn