A doctor working for the US government visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in October 2017 and raised safety concerns almost exactly two years before the COVID-19 pandemic began to emerge in the central Chinese city.
“It is clear to me by talking to the technician that certainly there is a need for training support,” Dr. Ping Chen, who worked at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), wrote in a report the following month, according to excerpts seen by The Post.
“I think the institute would welcome any help and technical support by NIAID.”
Now, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is pursuing additional information about the concerns Chen raised.
A 2018 State Department cable Johnson believes referenced Chen and other scientists’ misgivings about the lab was more pointed.
“[D]uring interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they noted that the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory,” the cable said. --->READ MORE HERE
The Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday that it has officially barred the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) from receiving US funding for the next 10 years, as more evidence points to the COVID-19 pandemic leaking out of a Chinese lab.
The Office of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra sent a letter on Tuesday to WIV Director General Dr. Yanyi Wang informing her that the lab — which conducted risky gain-of-function experiments on bat coronaviruses — will be denied US research grants until July 16, 2033.
The letter notes that attempts had been made to contact the lab via fax, email and mail about HHS’s decision to suspend funding in July, but no WIV officials had contested the designation or even responded to the agency.
In that earlier missive, the NIH said it found the Wuhan Institute of Virology had “conducted an experiment yielding a level of viral activity which was greater than permitted under the terms of the grant,” which was for the study of bat coronaviruses.
Other requests for the Chinese research institution’s lab findings had also been ignored after NIH made requests for them on Nov. 5, 2021, and Jan. 6, 2022.
“WIV has not acknowledged the violations, has not cooperated with the Government to address the violations, has not accepted responsibility for the violations, and, therefore, presumably has taken no action to eliminate the risk to the Government in conducting business transactions with WIV presently or into the future,” the letter states. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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