The Intercept reported on Sept. 6 that it had obtained 900 pages of documents which include details on U.S. government funding of coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology:
“This is a roadmap to the high-risk research that could have led to the current pandemic,” said Gary Ruskin, executive director of U.S. Right To Know, a group that has been investigating the origins of Covid-19.
Conspicuously missing from The Intercept's report is the name Anthony Fauci.
The documents, obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation, include "two previously unpublished grant proposals that were funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), as well as project updates relating to EcoHealth Alliance’s research, which has been scrutinized amid increased interest in the origins of the pandemic," the Intercept's report said.
Fauci has been the director of NIAID since 1984.
The documents obtained by The Intercept detail the grant provided to Peter Daszak's EcoHealth Alliance with a total of $3.1 million, "including $599,000 that the Wuhan Institute of Virology used in part to identify and alter bat coronaviruses likely to infect humans," the report noted.
"Even before the pandemic, many scientists were concerned about the potential dangers associated with such experiments."
The grant proposal acknowledges some of those dangers, stating: “Fieldwork involves the highest risk of exposure to SARS or other CoVs, while working in caves with high bat density overhead and the potential for fecal dust to be inhaled.”
Alina Chan, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute, said the documents show that EcoHealth Alliance has reason to take the lab-leak theory seriously.
“In this proposal, they actually point out that they know how risky this work is. They keep talking about people potentially getting bitten — and they kept records of everyone who got bitten,” Chan said. “Does EcoHealth have those records? And if not, how can they possibly rule out a research-related accident?”
The Intercept's mission statement includes the following: "The Intercept is an award-winning news organization dedicated to holding the powerful accountable through fearless, adversarial journalism. Its in-depth investigations and unflinching analysis focus on politics, war, surveillance, corruption, the environment, technology, criminal justice, the media, and more."
Fauci has continually denied that the agencies he heads up, NIH and NIAID, have funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab.
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul has called out Fauci on his continued denials.
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