One of the first Covid patients in China was a US-funded scientist working at the Wuhan virus laboratory who feared he had caused a pandemic
One of the first Covid patients to contract the virus at the Wuhan Institute of Virology had received federal money from the US government to fund his research.
Ben Hu, one of the scientists who developed symptoms related to the coronavirus in November 2019, was a recipient of government grants administered by the global non-profit EcoHealth Alliance.
Projects co-funded by the EcoHealth Alliance included research into infectious diseases in remote parts of the world that can spread from animal hosts to humans.
The revelation was made by anti-animal testing watchdog group White Coat Waste, whose president Anthony Bellotti said: “Taxpayers have a right to know who is responsible for the deadliest pandemic in 100 years, and now, thanks to our investigation, they know it.”‘
Monitoring group White Coat Waste sued the sprawling National Institutes of Health to gather information on the three early infections with a virus whose symptoms looked like Covid
Shi Zhengli — also known as “bat lady” or “bat woman” because of her work on bat coronaviruses — was investigating the possibility that Covid might have emerged from her lab as early as 2020, according to colleagues. Ben Hu was reportedly one of her star students
White Coat Waste filed a series of Freedom of Information Act filings and eventually sued the sprawling National Institutes of Health for responses to funding so-called “gain-of-function” research, often about developing a pathogen to make it more contagious.
Mr. Bellotti added, “Our FOIA investigation and winning a lawsuit against the NIH has unearthed the pivotal piece of evidence of the pandemic: US government-funded Wuhan gain-of-function experimenter Ben Hu — likely patient zero in the Wuhan lab — and its lavish spending.” Its reckless animal testing almost certainly caused a lab leak and COVID.”
When the term “lab leak” comes up, chances are the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the EcoHealth Alliance are close behind.
The controversial group EcoHealth Alliance has been at the center of the Covid origins debate since 2020.
The New York-based nonprofit had millions of dollars in grants from the National Institutes of Health and donated a portion of them to fund bat virus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
An oversight investigation conducted by the Office of Inspector General, the regulatory agency of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, found that NIH grant money paid to EcoHealth and awarded to smaller recipients, including the WIV, was mismanaged.
The federal government’s review covered three National Institutes of Health grants totaling $8 million to EcoHealth from 2014-2021. At least $598,000 went to the WIV.
After more than three years of living with the coronavirus and its many mutations, the origins of the pandemic remain unclear.
One camp considers it most likely that the virus either came from the highly secure bio-lab in Wuhan or happened by accident.
Those on the side of the lab leaks, which include China hawks and several federal intelligence agencies and officials, have expressed frustration at China obstructing investigations into the origins of the pandemic.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in February that the Chinese government had attempted to “frustrate and obfuscate” investigations by both the US government and the World Health Organization.
On the other hand, most virologists assume that the coronavirus first infected humans after jumping out of an animal reservoir.
Genetic evidence collected at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, at the epicenter of the 2020 outbreak, corroborated this theory. Genetic material collected from the market from January to March 2020 showed animal DNA in samples already known to be positive for Covid.
A significant portion of the DNA appeared to come from raccoon dogs traded in the market. However, their findings do not provide the conclusive evidence needed to confirm that Covid originated in animals.
To date, virologists have failed to locate the intermediate animal that harbored Covid before it could spread to humans.