An investigation found that more than a year before the global outbreak, US taxpayer money was used to experiment with coronaviruses from the Chinese laboratory believed to be the source of the Covid pandemic.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) infected in 2018 under the leadership of Dr. Anthony Fauci in a laboratory in Montana twelve Egyptian flying foxes with a “SARS-like” virus called WIV1.
The WIV1 coronavirus was shipped from the Wuhan lab that the FBI believes caused the Covid pandemic and was tested on bats purchased from a roadside zoo in Maryland.
Research published this week by a campaign group found the novel virus cannot cause a “robust infection”.
But the research is further evidence of the ties between the U.S. government and the Wuhan lab, as well as the funding of dangerous virus research around the world.
Eight novel viruses have been found in laboratories across China, including one that belongs to the same family as Covid
Between 2015 and 2023, at least seven U.S. institutions provided NIH grants totaling $3,306,061 to laboratories in China that conducted animal testing
The article “SARS-Like Coronavirus WIV1-CoV Does Not Replicate in Egyptian Fruit Bats” was published in the journal Viruses in 2018. The study was first reported by DRASTIC, a group of internet activists investigating the origins of Covid-19 and the lab leak theory.
The White Coat Waste Project group is now using the Freedom of Information Act to request more details about the experiment.
The White Coat Waste Project is a watchdog agency dedicated to stopping American taxpayer dollars from being sent abroad to fund research into dangerous viruses.
The 2018 experiment was conducted at the NIH’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana and was overseen by Fauci, the former director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The research was a joint venture between the NIH’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories and Wuhan Institute of Virology collaborator Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina.
Scientists obtained 12 Egyptian flying foxes from a zoo in Maryland and inoculated them with the WIV1 coronavirus, which was first detected in Chinese red horseshoe bats.
They conducted daily exams on the animals, measuring things like body weight and temperature. Scientists also took samples from the bats’ noses and throats.
On days three, seven and 28, four of the bats were euthanized and the heart, liver, kidney, spleen, bladder, reproductive organs, eyes and brain were removed for analysis. Scientists also analyzed white blood cell counts and antibodies.
The researchers found that the WIV1 coronavirus did not cause a “strong infection” and “observed very limited evidence of viral replication.”
The bats were allegedly sent to the Montana facility from a roadside zoo in Maryland by the zoo’s curator and director of animal health, who previously worked in the NIH’s in-house animal testing laboratories from 2003 to 2012, the WCW said.
The Catoctin Wildlife Preserve (CWP) is located in Thurmont, Maryland, less than 15 minutes from Camp David. It has a history of animal welfare violations and was fined $12,000 in 2012 for poor and dangerous animal husbandry and inadequate animal care.
Records show that as of April 2023, the reserve was home to 523 federally regulated animals, including 241 bats, 41 of which were Egyptian flying foxes.
Photos of bats caged at the Maryland Zoo and the animals shipped to an NIH lab for coronavirus experiments obtained from the White Coat Waste Project
The virus strain came from the Wuhan laboratory that experts believe caused the Covid-19 pandemic
Shi Zhengli – also known as the “Bat Lady” or “Bat Woman” because of her work on bat coronaviruses – was already investigating the possibility that Covid could have emerged from her laboratory in 2020, according to colleagues
A visitor left a review last month: “How is this place even legal?”
“I left heartbroken and sad.” The enclosures are so small and not maintained. This place is so unkempt. It’s terrible. It needs to be shut down. You can see the pain in the eyes of these animals. Something needs to be done about this place.
“This is not a reserve.” It is a place where animals are sent to suffer and be put on display for people. Disgusting.’
Despite the lack of transmission in bats in 2018, similar dangerous research has been carried out around the world for years on viruses that could trigger another pandemic.
And while there is debate over whether the pandemic began because a virus jumped from animals to humans or leaked from a lab in China, the FBI and other government agencies are now pushing the lab leak theory.
Most recently, revealed last week that Chinese virus hunters are tinkering with novel pathogens that have a “high chance” of infecting people, despite concerns that similar experiments led to the Covid outbreak.
also reported in August that millions of US taxpayer dollars are being sent to shady labs in China to fund cruel and dangerous animal testing.
Despite the global distribution of funds, America actually conducts the most powerful virus research.
Gain-of-function experiments are about making pathogens more contagious or deadly.
Supporters say the tests help science stay ahead of future outbreaks, but critics say the risks of a leak outweigh any potential benefits.
Those fears led U.S. officials last month to quietly cancel a taxpayer-funded $125 million project to search for new viruses.
The DEEP VZN program – pronounced Deep Vision – was launched in October 2021 with the aim of finding and studying novel pathogens in wildlife in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
While the research was intended to prevent human outbreaks and pandemics, critics, including Biden administration officials, feared it would have the opposite effect, voicing fears about the potentially “catastrophic risks” of virus hunting.
In a statement from WCW president and founder Anthony Bellotti, he said: “Our investigation has uncovered the true horror story of how a shady roadside zoo, whose curator was an NIH animal experimenter, shipped bats to a deadly government virus lab that was supervised by the government.” “Dr. “Fauci is believed to be infected with a coronavirus that came directly from the Wuhan lab and that experts believe caused COVID.”