foxnews.com

US, Canada have funded Chinese lab eyed as likely source of coronavirus outbreak

Tyler Olson

7-9 minutes

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Both the United States and Canada have sent money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese lab that multiple sources tell Fox News is suspected of being the likely source of the coronavirus pandemic -- with the Canadian funding coming as recently as last month.

Fox News reported Wednesday that, according to sources, there is increasing confidence the novel coronavirus likely escaped from the Wuhan laboratory, where it was being studied, with a worker spreading it to the larger population.

CORONAVIRUS: WHAT TO KNOW

In a news release from early March, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research announced millions in funding to research and develop tools such as vaccines and tests to combat the coronavirus. One project that got $828,046 from the agency was aimed at developing a rapid coronavirus test "using isothermal amplification and CRISPR technology." Among the organizations on the project was the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

"The collaborative research is conducted by a multi-disciplinary team of virologists, chemists, infectious disease specialists, front-line practitioners, and public health researchers from the University of Alberta, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and Wuhan Institute of Virology (China)," a backgrounder detailing where the Canadian government's grant money was going reads. "Our team members in Wuhan who currently perform the standard diagnostic tests will lead this effort."

In this Tuesday, March 10, 2020, photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping talks by video with patients and medical workers at the Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province. (Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via AP)

SOURCES BELIEVE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK ORIGINATED IN WUHAN LAB AS PART OF CHINA'S EFFORTS TO COMPETE WITH US

The Canadian news site Rebel News first reported on the grant.

This comes after recent reports, including from the Daily Mail, of millions of dollars in U.S. government grants funding research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in recent years, news that has upset multiple members of Congress.

"There is zero doubt that the Chinese communist government has American blood on its hands. They put American lives at risk by covering up the origin and scope of the coronavirus crisis," Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz. told Fox News Thursday.

She continued: "The NIH must immediately stop deploying American tax dollars to China for this dangerous research. I'm also leading congressional efforts to ensure no coronavirus relief payments—intended to help American taxpayers and businesses—are misspent in China. The Chinese government must be held accountable for this crisis."

According to public documents compiled by the White Coat Waste Project and shared with Fox News, The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been involved with research funded by $7.1 million worth of U.S. government grants from the National Institutes of Health as it has participated in projects in collaboration with U.S. institutions. One grant for research on bat coronaviruses has received $3.7 million and another grant involving injecting viruses into mice's brains got $3.4 million.

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.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology also has official approval from the National Institutes of Health to conduct taxpayer-funded research on animals in what is called "Animal Welfare Assurance" issued by the Public Health Service.

CORONAVIRUS COVERUP UNDERSCORES CHINA'S TIGHT GRIP ON WHO, UNITED NATIONS

"The U.S. government's spending spree that we've exposed at the notorious Wuhan Institute of Virology is outrageous and unacceptable," Justin Goodman, the White Coat Waste Project's vice president for advocacy and public policy told Fox News. "Taxpayers should never be forced to bankroll China's hazardous bio-agent experiments, which put human life around the world gravely at risk. We'll continue to work with our advocates and Congress to put an end to this egregious misuse of Americans' tax dollars."

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., has spoken out against the U.S. funding of the Chinese institute, including in an appearance on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" this week.

"I'm against funding Chinese research in our country, but I'm sure against funding it in China," Gaetz said, calling for an end to such grants. "The NIH [National Institutes of Health] gives a $3.7 million grant to the Wuhan Institute of Virology [and] they then advertise that they need coronavirus researchers and following that, coronavirus erupts in Wuhan."

As Fox News reported Wednesday, the suspicion surrounding the lab comes from classified and open-source documents and evidence, sources said. Sources emphasized -- as is often the case with intelligence -- that it's not definitive and should not be characterized as such. Some inside the administration and the intelligence and epidemiological communities are more skeptical, and the investigation is continuing.

What all of the sources agree on is the extensive cover-up of data and information about COVID-19 orchestrated by the Chinese government.

The recent revelations about U.S. and Canadian funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology come after 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.

"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 safely operate this high-containment laboratory," a January 2018 State Department cable obtained by the Washington Post reads.

STATE DEPARTMENT LEAKED CABLES RENEW THEORIES ON ORIGIN OF CORONAVIRUS

The cable argued that the United States should give Chinese researchers at the Wuhan lab more support because its research on bat coronaviruses was important and dangerous. The lab had already been receiving assistance from the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Fox News reported Wednesday night that the virus research was part of China's efforts to show that it could identify and combat coronaviruses as well as or better than the U.S.

China then undertook an extensive cover-up of information about the virus in an attempt to shield its origins from public scrutiny. Doctors and journalists were "disappeared" warning of the spread of the virus and its contagious nature. China moved quickly to shut down travel domestically from Wuhan to the rest of China, but did not stop international flights from Wuhan.

 

Nigel Farage: Trump's right. The WHO is not fit for purpose

newsweek.com

Nigel Farage: Trump's right. The WHO is not fit for purpose | Opinion

Nigel Farage On 4/16/20 at 12:55 PM EDT

7-8 minutes

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President Trump's aversion to the World Health Organization has been obvious for some time, so it was no surprise when he announced that the US would stop funding it. His decision has prompted a predictable chorus of complaints and howls of despair from all the usual suspects, but for multiple reasons these must be ignored.

First, let's consider the track record of the WHO's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a man who has behaved appallingly during the Covid-19 crisis. While a microbiologist and a malaria researcher, he has no known professional medical training—and yet he is in charge of the United Nations agency which is responsible for global public health. Even if the world had not been struck by coronavirus many would, on this evidence alone, question his fitness for this particular post. But his lack of appropriate credentials are not the half of it.

Formerly, Tedros served as a minister under Ethiopia's prime minister and president, Meles Zenawi, whose repressive regime had close links to Beijing. Tedros was also on good terms with another China apologist, Zimbabwe's tyrannical president Robert Mugabe, and in 2017 he even installed Mugabe as a WHO goodwill ambassador (a decision that was reversed after protests from human rights groups). His political background therefore raises legitimate questions about his objectivity in the current pandemic. His actions in recent weeks have merely confirmed his strong admiration for China.

In January, he visited China and met with President Xi Jinping. On his return, he praised the Communist state for its "transparency", despite it having covered up the true extent of Covid-19 by silencing doctors who wanted to alert the public to the outbreak. Chillingly, it has been reported that three journalist whistleblowers—named as Chen Qiushi, Fang Bing and Li Zehua—remain missing two months after trying to inform the world of the true scale of the outbreak in Wuhan. Although senior figures from the WHO, including Australia's Professor John Mackenzie, have called China "reprehensible", Tedros has continued to heap praise on Xi and on his country, saying it should be "congratulated" for protecting "the people of the world". He even told colleagues he was "very impressed and encouraged by the president's detailed knowledge of the outbreak."

Time after time, Tedros has made statements urging other countries not to close their borders to Chinese visitors and has glorified China for setting "a new standard on outbreak control". Yet it now seems to me that the WHO has, through such sheer imbecilic irresponsibility, actively helped to spread this disease around the world.

Trump is right—neither Tedros nor the WHO is fit for purpose. It's just a shame that Trump didn't go further by calling for the abolition of the WHO. It cannot convincingly claim to be politically neutral and its policy platform appears to be up for sale to the highest bidder. For a global health outfit, it has some terribly unhealthy habits.

Disturbingly, in the very week that Trump has challenged the WHO, the British government has decided to signal its virtue to the world by giving it a further £75m. Naturally, this has earned high praise from Tedros himself. As far as I am concerned it simply shows that the influence of China's money and its relentless propaganda war have taken in not only the WHO, but also most Western governments.

At the same time, the Chinese technology firm Huawei has been having a busy week in Britain. Despite mounting opposition from politicians and campaigners, it is poised to help build the U.K.'s 5G data network. Having received criticism recently, its U.K. boss, Victor Zhang, wrote an open letter emphasising the key role Huawei already plays in the U.K.'s data network and – in a sickeningly condescending move – reassuring people that it is "focused on keeping Britain connected" during the "unprecedented" coronavirus pandemic.

Zhang said that data usage has increased by at least 50 percent since Covid-19 first reached the U.K., placing "significant pressure" on telecoms systems. He stated: "During this pandemic our engineers – designated 'essential' workers – are striving around the clock to keep Britain connected". He then launched into a lecture whose central message was that excluding his company in our 5G network would do a "disservice" to U.K. consumers.

While I and many others feel angry at the sheer arrogance of Zhang's statement (and fearful of the consequences of Huawei's presence in the U.K.'s infrastructure) I am sure it was met with nods of approval in Downing Street. Also this week, the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, successfully satisfied Beijing that Britain will not politicize the coronavirus crisis in a way that would have an adverse effect on China.

Huawei's other big announcement of the week in the U.K. has been the unveiling of its newest board member, Sir Mike Rake, a former President of the Confederation of British Industry and such an enthusiast for the European Union that he once advocated Britain joining its single currency, the Euro. As I reflect on this, I am convinced that the same group of people who sold Britain out to Brussels now appear intent on allowing this country to be taken over by Beijing.

The only crumb of comfort I can find at present is that when Boris Johnson recovers from his own brush with coronavirus, and is back at work full-time, he will still have to face the 36 Conservative MPs who last month used a parliamentary vote to voice their belief that Huawei's involvement in the U.K.'s 5G expansion should cease. Indeed, as this row brews over the summer, I suspect the number of rebels in Johnson's own party will increase. With this in mind it is significant that the former Conservative Foreign Secretary, William Hague, this week expressed his concerns that the U.K. has become too dependent on China. It seems that for ventilators, face masks and many other products, we are almost entirely reliant on this Communist regime.

Donald Trump apart, the extent to which China has already infiltrated the West's political systems and ruling classes means that real reversals of policy after this crisis are less than likely. However, there is still one group of people who can decide whether China attains the global dominance it clearly craves: consumers. In the final analysis, it is not governments that do business, but individuals making their own choices with their money.

With this in mind, I pledge today that as far as is humanly possible, I will not knowingly buy a product that is made in China from now on—certainly not while this barbaric regime is in place. If tens of millions of people have the same view, then we will win. If not, then China will rule the world, and no doubt our politicians will applaud from the sidelines.

Nigel Farage is senior editor-at-large of Newsweek's "The Debate" platform.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own.​​​​​