A newly released document detailing US-funded research on several strains of the coronavirus at the Wuhan Lab, China, has been revealed by The Intercept.
They claimed to have obtained the documents after suing the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US government's public health and biomedical research agency, using public information disclosure laws.
The Intercept obtained more than 900 pages of documents detailing what the EcoHealth Alliance, a US-based health organization, is using American state money to fund research on coronaviruses from bats in laboratories in China.
This finding is not valid evidence that the Wuhan Lab is the origin of the Corona COVID-19 virus, but it makes suspicions even greater.
EcoHealth Alliance's funding for bat coronavirus research was USD 3.1 million, including USD 599 thousand used by the Wuhan Institute of Virology to identify and modify bat Corona viruses that may infect humans.
According to Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, the document contains important information about research being carried out in the Wuhan lab, including about the creation of new viruses.
"The virus they created was tested for their ability to infect mice engineered to display human-type receptors on their cells," Ebright wrote to The Intercept after reviewing the documents.
Ebright also said the document made clear that two strains of the new coronavirus could infect 'humanized' mice. "When they were working on the SARS-related coronavirus, they were doing a parallel project at the same time on the MERS-related coronavirus," Ebright said.
The incident has prompted Dr Anthony Fauci, the chief health adviser to US President Joe Biden and director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to step down.
Because thanks to the leak of the document, he was accused of lying about the funds channeled to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) laboratory for Corona virus research.
In May 2021. Dr. Fauci in testimony to the US Senate stated, "The National Institute of Health (NIH) government agency has never funded 'gain of function' research at WIV."
'gain of function' research is basically medical research that genetically alters organisms that may add function to test a theory. If applied to viruses, for example, this research could turn them into more infectious or deadly for research purposes.
"This document makes it clear that the statements by NIH directors and Anthony Fauci that the NIH does not support research at WIV are untrue," said Richard Ebright.
Several Republican politicians also hold Dr Fauci responsible for his lies. So are netizens.
"Citizens' taxes are used to fund coronavirus research at WIV. What is Dr Fauci really hiding?" asked senator Jim Jordan.
"NIH has funded dangerous research on gain of function in the Wuhan Lab. The man who asked for masks to be used on children and put us under continuous lockdown actually helped the Corona virus pandemic. Why is he still able to work? Fauci must be fired and immediately investigated," he said. Senator Ronny Jackson.
