Emails Reveal What US Officials Knew—and Feared—About Wuhan Lab
Ask who never gets charged.
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—In the summer of 2019, the Wuhan Institute of Virology was set to become the headquarters for the Center for Biosafety Mega-Science, according to documents from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
In less than a year, biosafety seemed an unlikely description for the Wuhan lab that was widely suspected as the site where COVID-19 originated.
As COVID-19 began to emerge in the United States in January and February 2020, NIAID “got nervous” about the taxpayer dollars it sent to the Wuhan lab, according to one internal email. Other emails showed officials seemed frustrated and surprised about the lack of candor from the Chinese grantees about the virus.
The 145 pages of emails and other government documents show “a striking pattern of naiveté by NIH officials in their dealings with Chinese scientists,” said Alex Finnegan, director of digital capabilities at the Oversight Project, a watchdog group that obtained the documents through the Freedom of Information Act.
“NIH officials viewed China’s scientific establishment not as it actually operates—under the authority and control of the Chinese Communist Party—but as they wished it to operate within the norms of open scientific collaboration,” Finnegan told The Daily Signal. “Again and again, reality intruded on this assumption, yet the records show little evidence that NIH changed its posture.”
The FBI, CIA, and Department of Energy have concluded that the virus likely leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. However, other agencies are undecided or still contend it had a natural origin.
Early in 2020, NIH scientist Ping Chen asked Shi Zhengli, director of Wuhan Institute of Virology, for information on the virus, but Zhengli was not forthcoming.
“For my curiosity, would you be able to share the viral agent info?” she asked.
Zhengli replied, “Please be patient and wait for official announcement.”
On Jan. 22, 2020, Chen told NIH colleagues, “The Chinese government is in charge of the information now.”
A little more than a month later, Chen recounted in an email to colleagues a meeting she had with staffers from China’s embassy in Washington. The staffers would not share information.
“They wanted information on drug, vaccine, and diagnostic development in the U.S. and the companies. But when we asked about reciprocal information, they immediately turned the subject around and asked us something else,” Chen wrote. “They are not sharing any with us.”
NIH and NIAID staffers began to compile information on grants to China. NIH staffer Gayle Bernabe wrote to her colleagues on Feb. 3 that a request is “needed by today.” Bernabe added, “To respond to this request, perhaps we can divide the tasks at hand.”
The same day, Chen emailed colleagues about grant money going to a Chinese researcher working under the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Science. Two active grants were going to Dr. Zhou Yusen, a researcher in the Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, described in the email as “an institute under the Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS).”
The Academy of Military Medical Sciences …
Ask who never gets charged.
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—In the summer of 2019, the Wuhan Institute of Virology was set to become the headquarters for the Center for Biosafety Mega-Science, according to documents from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
In less than a year, biosafety seemed an unlikely description for the Wuhan lab that was widely suspected as the site where COVID-19 originated.
As COVID-19 began to emerge in the United States in January and February 2020, NIAID “got nervous” about the taxpayer dollars it sent to the Wuhan lab, according to one internal email. Other emails showed officials seemed frustrated and surprised about the lack of candor from the Chinese grantees about the virus.
The 145 pages of emails and other government documents show “a striking pattern of naiveté by NIH officials in their dealings with Chinese scientists,” said Alex Finnegan, director of digital capabilities at the Oversight Project, a watchdog group that obtained the documents through the Freedom of Information Act.
“NIH officials viewed China’s scientific establishment not as it actually operates—under the authority and control of the Chinese Communist Party—but as they wished it to operate within the norms of open scientific collaboration,” Finnegan told The Daily Signal. “Again and again, reality intruded on this assumption, yet the records show little evidence that NIH changed its posture.”
The FBI, CIA, and Department of Energy have concluded that the virus likely leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. However, other agencies are undecided or still contend it had a natural origin.
Early in 2020, NIH scientist Ping Chen asked Shi Zhengli, director of Wuhan Institute of Virology, for information on the virus, but Zhengli was not forthcoming.
“For my curiosity, would you be able to share the viral agent info?” she asked.
Zhengli replied, “Please be patient and wait for official announcement.”
On Jan. 22, 2020, Chen told NIH colleagues, “The Chinese government is in charge of the information now.”
A little more than a month later, Chen recounted in an email to colleagues a meeting she had with staffers from China’s embassy in Washington. The staffers would not share information.
“They wanted information on drug, vaccine, and diagnostic development in the U.S. and the companies. But when we asked about reciprocal information, they immediately turned the subject around and asked us something else,” Chen wrote. “They are not sharing any with us.”
NIH and NIAID staffers began to compile information on grants to China. NIH staffer Gayle Bernabe wrote to her colleagues on Feb. 3 that a request is “needed by today.” Bernabe added, “To respond to this request, perhaps we can divide the tasks at hand.”
The same day, Chen emailed colleagues about grant money going to a Chinese researcher working under the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Science. Two active grants were going to Dr. Zhou Yusen, a researcher in the Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, described in the email as “an institute under the Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS).”
The Academy of Military Medical Sciences …
Emails Reveal What US Officials Knew—and Feared—About Wuhan Lab
Ask who never gets charged.
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—In the summer of 2019, the Wuhan Institute of Virology was set to become the headquarters for the Center for Biosafety Mega-Science, according to documents from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
In less than a year, biosafety seemed an unlikely description for the Wuhan lab that was widely suspected as the site where COVID-19 originated.
As COVID-19 began to emerge in the United States in January and February 2020, NIAID “got nervous” about the taxpayer dollars it sent to the Wuhan lab, according to one internal email. Other emails showed officials seemed frustrated and surprised about the lack of candor from the Chinese grantees about the virus.
The 145 pages of emails and other government documents show “a striking pattern of naiveté by NIH officials in their dealings with Chinese scientists,” said Alex Finnegan, director of digital capabilities at the Oversight Project, a watchdog group that obtained the documents through the Freedom of Information Act.
“NIH officials viewed China’s scientific establishment not as it actually operates—under the authority and control of the Chinese Communist Party—but as they wished it to operate within the norms of open scientific collaboration,” Finnegan told The Daily Signal. “Again and again, reality intruded on this assumption, yet the records show little evidence that NIH changed its posture.”
The FBI, CIA, and Department of Energy have concluded that the virus likely leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. However, other agencies are undecided or still contend it had a natural origin.
Early in 2020, NIH scientist Ping Chen asked Shi Zhengli, director of Wuhan Institute of Virology, for information on the virus, but Zhengli was not forthcoming.
“For my curiosity, would you be able to share the viral agent info?” she asked.
Zhengli replied, “Please be patient and wait for official announcement.”
On Jan. 22, 2020, Chen told NIH colleagues, “The Chinese government is in charge of the information now.”
A little more than a month later, Chen recounted in an email to colleagues a meeting she had with staffers from China’s embassy in Washington. The staffers would not share information.
“They wanted information on drug, vaccine, and diagnostic development in the U.S. and the companies. But when we asked about reciprocal information, they immediately turned the subject around and asked us something else,” Chen wrote. “They are not sharing any with us.”
NIH and NIAID staffers began to compile information on grants to China. NIH staffer Gayle Bernabe wrote to her colleagues on Feb. 3 that a request is “needed by today.” Bernabe added, “To respond to this request, perhaps we can divide the tasks at hand.”
The same day, Chen emailed colleagues about grant money going to a Chinese researcher working under the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Science. Two active grants were going to Dr. Zhou Yusen, a researcher in the Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, described in the email as “an institute under the Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS).”
The Academy of Military Medical Sciences …
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