The Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese laboratory at the center of criticism over the alleged coronavirus leak has been using U.S government money in order to continue their research on bats from the caves which scientists believe are the original source of the coronavirus.
The laboratory undertook coronavirus experiments on mammals captured more than 1,000 miles away in Yunnan which were funded by a $3.7 million grant from the US government during Obama's time.
After the coronavirus outbreak, scientists have traced the COVID-19 back to bats found in Yunnan caves but it was first speculated to have transferred to humans at an animal market in Wuhan. The revelation that the Wuhan Institute was experimenting on bats from the place where the COVID-19 allegedly came from and using American money to continue with their research has sparked fears that the lab is the original outbreak source and not the market in Wuhan.
Numerous lawmakers and pressure groups were quick it criticizes the U.S funding provided for the dangerous and cruel animal experiment at the Wuhan Institute.
Reaction from the lawmakers
Republican U.S Congressman Matt Gaetz said that he is disgusted to learn that for years the U.S government has been funding dangerous and cruel animal experiments at the Wuhan Institute, which may have contributed to the global spread of coronavirus, and research at other labs in China that have no oversight from US authorities.
On April 25, Anthony Bellotti, the president of the US pressure group White Coat Waste, condemned the government for spending tax dollars in China. He added that animals infected with viruses or otherwise sickened and abused in Chinese labs reportedly may be sold to wet markets for consumption once the experiments are done.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology funding
The Wuhan Institute of Virology is considered the most advanced laboratory of its type in China and it is only twenty miles from the wildlife market in Wuhan that was speculated to be the location of the original transfer of the coronavirus from animals to humans.
The Mail was able to obtain documents on April 26, and scientists in the Wuhan laboratory experimented on bats as part of a project funded by the U.S National Institutes of Health, which continues to license the Wuhan laboratory to get funds from America for experiments.
The Wuhan Institute lists the NIH, the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research, as a partner as well as several other American academic institutes on their website.
Other U.S partners of the Wuhan Institute are the University of Alabama, the University of North Texas, Harvard University, and the National Wildlife Federation. Scientists grew a coronavirus in a lab and injected it into three-day-old piglets as part of the NIH research at the institute.
There is numerous news about COVID-19 bats under research in the Wuhan Institute, so a leak from the place can no longer be ruled out. According to one source, scientists at the institute could have become infected after being sprayed with blood containing the virus, and then passed it on to the people outside the lab.
A second institute in Wuhan, the Wuhan Center for Disease Control, is three miles away from the Wuhan market and it is said to also carry out experiments on animals such as bats to examine the transmission of coronaviruses.
