[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]
By Adam Andrzejewski
Real Clear Wire
Topline: EcoHealth Alliance — the nonprofit that sent taxpayer funds to the Wuhan lab researching bat coronaviruses before the pandemic — has received $94.3 million from the U.S. government since 2008, according to Fox News.
The Department of Health and Human Services suspended funding to EcoHealth this May.
Key facts: EcoHealth received $8 million from HHS to study coronaviruses between 2014 and 2021 and sent some of the funds to labs including the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
A previous audit found that HHS did not properly monitor the grants. EcoHealth is accused of spending the money on gain-of-function research, which makes a virus more infectious so scientists can develop vaccines against it.
Some have theorized that a wayward gain-of-function coronavirus sample from the Wuhan lab could have started the pandemic. Former President Donald Trump at one point supported this theory and Dr. Anthony Fauci said in 2021 that the “possibility certainly exists,” but the CIA found “no direct evidence” of such an incident.
The HHS sent EcoHealth another $653,000 for coronavirus research in September 2022. Overall the U.S. has sent over $50 million to EcoHealth since the beginning of the pandemic, Dr. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, told Fox News.
Ebright said most of those funds came from HHS, the Department of Defense and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Funds also came from the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Commerce, according to OpenTheBooks’ review of data at USAspending.gov. The Department of the Interior awarded another $61,000 for “manatee research.”
Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.
Background: EcoHealth Alliance’s funding of the Wuhan lab is just one piece of the $490 million the U.S. sent to China between 2017 and 2023, quantified by OpenTheBooks and Sen. Joni Ernst last year.
HHS sent $64 million to China, including $298,000 to try and get the country to clean up its research fraud.
Another $51.6 million came from the DOD, including $6 million to use Chinese software in U.S. defense programs.
Summary: More transparency and accountability is needed for the American public to understand how the pandemic began and what research our taxes are supporting.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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