Newly revealed emails raise concerns about U.S.-funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, suggesting possible untraceable manipulations.
Newly disclosed emails point to concerns about U.S.-funded experiments on coronaviruses in China, which have been connected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), led by Dr. Anthony Fauci until his departure in late 2022, funded a grant totaling $4.3 million, a portion of which was allocated to the Wuhan lab, according to details on a grant webpage.
An anonymous individual informed the FBI on April 23, 2020, that these experiments could potentially manipulate coronaviruses in a way that "would leave no signatures of purposeful human manipulation." The revelation came from emails obtained by the nonprofit Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request, though the identities of the source and FBI officials involved were redacted.
An FBI official responded to the alarming information with urgency, as indicated in an email forwarding the tip: "Hey are you going to be in office tomorrow? We just interviewed our person from [redacted] again and he provided us with some alarming new info. Give me a call if you can."
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton emphasized the gravity of these findings, stating, “These smoking gun documents showed the FBI quickly understood that Fauci’s agency funded the gain-of-function research that could disguise the resulting coronavirus as ‘natural.’”
Robert Garry, a microbiologist and virologist, suggested in early 2020 that genetic manipulation of viruses can be untraceable. However, he and other scientists later published a paper titled "Proximal Origin," which argued that the evidence indicates COVID-19 is not a lab construct.
The FBI opened an investigation into the Wuhan lab research, which was part of a project named "Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence." Though the specific actions taken by the FBI are undisclosed, FBI Director Christopher Wray acknowledged in 2023 that the bureau considers a lab leak at the Wuhan facility as a likely origin of COVID-19.
The U.S. intelligence community remains divided on the pandemic's origins. While some agencies lean toward the lab leak hypothesis, others are undecided or favor a natural origin. China has impeded inquiries into the matter and refused to release information pertinent to the lab's research.
Records also revealed that experiments funded through the U.S. grant resulted in a bat coronavirus that was more virulent in mice than its predecessor. Prior to the pandemic, concerns were raised about the lab's work. In 2023, the U.S. renewed EcoHealth's grant but has since prohibited funding to the Wuhan lab due to a lack of transparency.
