On Thursday, Lawrence Tabak, the principal deputy director for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), admitted that the agency funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During a Congressional hearing, Rep. Lesko (R-AZ) asked Tabak if the NIH “funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through EcoHealth,” a New York-based non-profit group that researches pandemics.
“It depends on your definition of gain-of-function research,” Dr. Tabak responded. “If you’re speaking about the generic term, yes, we did.”
🇺🇸NIH ADMITS IT FUNDED WUHAN LAB BEFORE COVID-19 OUTBREAK
Rep. Lesko: "Did NIH fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through EcoHealth?"
Dr. Tabak: “If you're speaking about the generic term, yes, we did.”pic.twitter.com/fRdZ95l8oT https://t.co/5GNwcj7Vb9
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 17, 2024
This statement raises questions about the US government’s role in the creation of the COVID-19 virus.
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Speculation has swirled since the Department of Energy released a 2021 study pointing to the lab-leak hypothesis as a likely explanation of the COVID-19 pandemic origin. The connections between EcoHealth, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and the NIH have been under question for their role in creating the pandemic.
In March of 2023, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released its key takeaways on the origins of COVID-19. It details “mountains of evidence” indicating the truth of the Wuhan-lab-leak hypothesis.
In October 2014, the Obama White House halted funding of gain-of-function research, citing concerns related to “recent biosafety incidents at Federal research facilities.” In 2017, EcoHealth Alliance was awarded $6.5 million for the purpose of “understanding the risk of bat-borne zoonotic disease emergence in Western Asia.”
According to a report by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, “research facilitated by EcoHealth — with U.S. tax dollars —was conducted at the WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology] and qualified as gain-of-function research.”
The world economy shrunk by 3 percent from 2019 to 2020, according to IMF reports. Though the data is abstract, what it means for the lives of billions of people is tangible. The economic fallout from COVID-19 seemed to impact lower-income people more intensely, as Pew Research data in August 2020 showed.
In the years since, the US has faced challenges with lingering inflation, with many pointing to the stimulus spending during COVID-19 as a root cause.
While the web of funding and research behind the origin of COVID-19 is anything but clear, this new testimony speaks to the relationship between NIH, EcoHealth, and the Wuhan lab.
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