The National Institutes of Health database tracking U.S. taxpayer-backed research grants – including the controversial award from Mr. Anthony Fauci’s agency to the Wuhan Institute of Virology – can no longer be accessed.
When searched, the database, which itemizes the billions of taxpayer-funded grants distributed by various National Institutes of Health (NIH) agencies, yields no results and prompts users with an error message. Among the agencies included in the registry is the Fauci-led National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which has come under scrutiny for funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The website also previously revealed NIAID-directed funds for joint research between disgrace COVID-19 investigator Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance and the Chinese government-run lab under the auspices of a nearly $3.7 million grant entitled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.”
Details about the controversial grant – including its abstract, terms, and relevance statement – can no longer be viewed.
Archived versions of the same link, however, reveal the study’s relevance to COVID-19, as it focused on bat-borne SARS-like viruses:
We will use S protein sequence data, infectious clone technology, in vitro and in vivo infection experiments and analysis of receptor binding to test the hypothesis that % divergence thresholds in S protein sequences predict spillover potential. We will combine these data with bat host distribution, viral diversity and phylogeny, human survey of risk behaviors and illness, and serology to identify SARSr-CoV spillover risk hotspots across southern China. Together these data and analyses will be critical for the future development of public health interventions and enhanced surveillance to prevent the re-emergence of SARS or the emergence of a novel SARSr-CoV.
Studies under the ““Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence” portfolio also describe Fauci-directed grants as going to both EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak and Shi Zhengli, Director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases.
For example, one study on the “Isolation and Characterization of a Novel Bat Coronavirus” notes that “National Institutes of Health (NIH) provided funding to Peter Daszak and Zheng-Li Shi under grant number NIAID R01AI110964.”
These financial ties revealed in the now-defunct database are at odds with Fauci’s attempts to distance himself and his agency from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
