Warnings from US researchers about genetically engineered viruses in China’s bat laboratory were raised years before the Covid-19 pandemic but were ignored or censored.
Newly obtained data shows how an NIH official raised serious concerns about the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s plan to develop Ebola strains in 2017.
The laboratory – from which the FBI believes Covid leaked – was found to have a “severe shortage of properly trained technicians and researchers needed to operate safely.”
The unnamed official from the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which was then led by Anthony Fauci, was ordered to clear the safety flaws in her report to avoid angering China.
And this wasn’t the first time concerns about artificial viruses have been addressed.
A year earlier, US energy officials warned NIAID about the dangers of genetically engineered and modified pathogens. However, Francis Collins, former head of the National Institutes of Health, called the claims “science fiction.”
President Barack Obama shakes hands with Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health in 2009. Collins said warnings about dangerous genetically engineered viruses were ‘science fiction’
In the photo: the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the laboratory believed to be the origin of Covid-19
Between 2015 and 2023, at least seven U.S. entities provided NIH grant money to laboratories in China that conduct animal testing, totaling $3,306,061
In 2017, the NIAID official visited the laboratory in Wuhan. That year, China established its first biosafety level 4 laboratory at the WIV, hoping to study some of the world’s most deadly pathogens with funding from France, Canada and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
The US indirectly funded the WIV research through grants awarded to EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), a controversial research group at the center of the Covid laboratory leak theory, which then sent money to the WIV.
The NIAID official later wrote in emails to her superiors that she was alarmed when she learned that the WIV researchers planned to study Ebola.
However, with China banning the import of the deadly virus, the team started using a technique called reverse genetics to develop it in their laboratory.
As she prepared her official report on the lab tour, which was to be submitted to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, the NIAID employee sent emails to colleagues about her concerns about disclosing the Ebola detail.
In the emails, obtained by Vanity fair‘, she wrote: ‘I don’t want the information, especially using reverse genetics to create viruses, to get out’ because she believed it would damage cooperation between NIAID and WIV.
She added, “I was shocked when I heard what (the WIV technician) said (about reverse engineering Ebola). I also worry about the reaction of people in Washington when they read this.
‘I don’t feel comfortable speaking to a broader audience within government circles. It can be very sensitive.’
F. Gray Handley, then NIAID deputy director for international investigative affairs, responded to the email and agreed with the official. His response included, “As we discussed. Delete that comment.’
Shi Zhengli – dubbed the ‘Bat Lady’ or ‘Bat Woman’ for her work on bat coronaviruses – explored the possibility that Covid could have emerged from her lab in 2020, according to colleagues
In an embassy statement later that month in response to the report, WIV scientists said there was a “severe shortage of properly trained technicians and researchers needed to safely operate the laboratory.”
However, it did not contain information that NIAID officials apparently found most concerning.
Although the concept of engineering Ebola is not considered particularly unusual, the NIAID official feared because of the WIV lab’s shortcomings that his plans to reverse engineer the virus would cause alarm, she recently revealed to congressional investigators.
An NIH spokesperson told Vanity Fair that the NIAID official “took appropriate steps to ensure that officials from NIAID, HHS, and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing were aware of the technician’s comment (regarding Ebola investigation) through its report on the visit.’
However, the spokesperson could not provide evidence that the report detailing the Ebola observations had been shared with the embassy.
The fear of the development of a deadly virus is not unfounded.
In 2016, the Department of Energy released a threat assessment on the sale and research of genetically engineered biological samples and viruses and added genomic editing to the list of potential weapons of mass destruction.
At a meeting in October of that year, the DOE presented a comprehensive proposal to monitor the sale of genetic components and better track evidence of genetic engineering to prevent foreign entities from using the technique for malicious purposes.
According to one participant at the meeting, former head of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins dismissed the risks posed by officials as “science fiction,” adding, “You took this out of a movie.” This reads like a movie script.’
Despite evidence that the WIV laboratory was not equipped to deal with dangerous pathogens, it continued to receive international support, including from NIAID through grant funds sent to EcoHealth Alliance to help fund WIV’s coronavirus research.
And concerns continued to be raised about WIV and coronavirus research.
In the years and months leading up to the pandemic, DOE and NIH officials frequently clashed over collaborations with foreign scientific entities.
Energy officials warned the NIH of the national security risks associated with gene editing and the possibility that it could be used by hostile countries including China, the Vanity Fair investigation found.
Just months before the 2019 pandemic began, DOE officials issued their most dramatic and specific warning to NIAID about the research the health agency helped fund at the Chinese lab.
Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette told an adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci that the coronavirus research the US contributed to at the WIV was at risk of being misused for military purposes.
Brouillette told NIAID that it should reconsider its partnerships with Chinese government scientists.
An NIAID spokesperson told Vanity Fair that the agency is “not aware of this interaction.”
The WIV is at the center of the controversy surrounding the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Earlier this year, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a declassified report on the origins of the pandemic.
It showed that the DOE and FBI believe the pandemic originated in the laboratory. The National Intelligence Council, as well as four other government agencies, believe the virus jumped from an animal to humans and two others, including the CIA, say there is not enough evidence to support one theory over the other.