(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A Montana lab funded by the National Institutes of Health experimented on bats infected with coronaviruses in 2018, a year before the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to a new report from the White Coat Waste Project.
WCW said Monday that online sleuths recently discovered a research paper from 2018 written by multiple NIH researchers, including Ralph Baric, the epidemiology professor at the University of North Carolina, who has been described in legal disputes as a “close collaborator with the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
According to the academic paper, the NIH-funded Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana was where the experiments took place.
Bats infected with coronaviruses were shipped there from a “roadside zoo” in Maryland, the paper said. WCW noted that the Maryland zoo, the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve, is directed by Laurie Hahn, who was an NIH official from 2003 to 2012, according to her LinkedIn account.
The strand used to infect the bats, WIV1, was reportedly shipped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“Twelve male adult Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) were obtained from the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo in Thurmont, Maryland,” the paper said.
The researchers were apparently interested in whether the Egyptian fruit bats would be infected with the same COVID strand originally detected in Chinese rufous horseshoe bats.
“We were unable to detect efficient replication of WIV1-CoV in Egyptian fruit bats,” the study concluded.
WCW’s findings sparked an uproar amongst GOP lawmakers, who accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of further duplicity with his role in possibly creating the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
“Tony Fauci and his team reportedly experimented with the Wuhan virus in Montana a year before the COVID emergency began,” said Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. “They must be held accountable for these actions.”
NEW: Tony Fauci and his team reportedly experimented with the Wuhan virus in Montana a year before the COVID emergency began.
They must be held accountable for these actions. https://t.co/fUI6ekt3kM
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) November 1, 2023
“Fauci needs to be held accountable NOW,” added Rep. Tom Tiffany.
“I don’t recall Fauci mentioning this to Congress,” noted scientist Steve Milloy, who was a member of Donald Trump’s transition team.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
