Virus Origin: NIH Provided $3.7 Million to Wuhan Lab in 2015

#1: Fox News reported that, according to public documents compiled by the White Coat Waste Project, in 2015, the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) provided $7.1 million worth of U.S. government grants to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The grants were for the lab to participate in projects in collaboration with U.S. institutions. One grant for research on the bat coronaviruses was $3.7 million and another grant of $3.4 million was for injecting viruses into the brains of mice. It is not clear exactly how much U.S. funding went directly to the Wuhan Institute of Virology because it worked in collaboration with other institutions on the projects funded by the American grants.

Fox News also mentioned that the Washington Post reported earlier this week that State Department officials had expressed grave concerns in recent years about the safety of the Chinese lab. A January 2018 State Department cable that the Washington Post obtained reads, “During interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to operate this high-containment laboratory safely.” (Fox News)

#2. At the White House briefing on April 17, when asked about the NIH grant to the Wuhan lab, President Trump said that he has instructed to stop the funding if it has not been given out. “The Obama administration gave them a grant of $3.7 million and we have instructed that if any grants are going to that area, we are looking at it literally about an hour ago and also early in the morning. We will end that grant very quickly, but it was granted quite a while ago.” (Washington Examiner)

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