‘Taxpayers’ money should not be sent to a dangerous Chinese state-run bio-agent laboratory that … is run by adversaries with a history of lab leaks…’
(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) U.S. taxpayers funded the dangerous Wuhan, China bio-lab where the global coronavirus pandemic is thought to have originated.
Now, 52 members of Congress are trying to make sure that “no stimulus funding is sent.”
Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., are leading the congressional coalition urging House and Senate leadership to end all funding of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, including any proceeds from the $2-trillion CARES Act.
“We’re sure you agree that taxpayers’ money should not be sent to a dangerous Chinese state-run bio-agent laboratory that lacks any meaningful oversight from U.S. authorities and is run by adversaries with a history of lab leaks,” the members wrote in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Wednesday.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology is the only level-4 biosafety lab, or BSL-4, facility in China. Level-4 labs are authorized to work with highly dangerous and exotic microbes and can function as dual-use laboratories for bioweapons.
Recent media reports have shown that the U.S. National Institutes of Health has been funding secretive laboratory research at the Wuhan facility for many years. Active NIH grants total $3.7 million to-date.
According to the NIH’s website, the Wuhan lab has been receiving U.S. taxpayer funding to conduct animal research.
Peer-reviewed research papers also show that NIH funding has been used in Wuhan for research involving “capturing and handling coronavirus-infected bats from the same caves [where] COVID-19 is believed to have originated,” McSally and Gaetz wrote.
In some cases, infected bats were killed and transported to the Wuhan lab for experiments, they said.
“Although President Trump has stated that his administration ‘will end that grant quickly,’ we hope to ensure that WIV will not receive federal funds in any future spending packages,” Wednesday’s letter stated.
Under the recent CARES Act, both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the NIH are slated to receive billions of dollars in new taxpayer support.