According to a former U.S. official, a Chinese scientist working in Wuhan, partially funded by U.S. grants, was one of three researchers who fell ill with a mysterious illness at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. This revelation potentially supports the theory that the virus originated from a lab leak rather than a wild animal market in Wuhan. The scientist, Ben Hu, was conducting research on coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology when he experienced symptoms similar to COVID-19. U.S. intelligence reports indicated that some of Hu’s projects were funded by U.S. grants.
These grants, totaling $1.4 million, were provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Institutes of Health between 2014 and 2019. The funding ended in 2019. Hu’s projects included studying animal viruses that can transfer to humans and cause pandemics, as well as researching bat coronaviruses.
A former Health and Human Services Department official, Robert Kadlec, raised concerns about Hu and the other two scientists, stating that their experiments on SARS-related coronaviruses were conducted in biosafety settings that were deemed inappropriate and could have led to a laboratory infection.
The other two scientists who fell ill alongside Hu were identified as Yu Ping and Yan Zhu. Both researchers survived. Ping had written a report on coronaviruses found in bats before falling ill. These findings were initially reported in a Substack article, referred to as “patients zero,” and indicate a potential accidental release of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
China’s lack of transparency and failure to disclose data regarding the virus origins has drawn criticism. The World Health Organization’s epidemiologist, Maria Van Kirkhove, expressed concern about the delay in understanding the pandemic’s origins, emphasizing the need for transparency to ensure global safety.
In an effort to shed light on the pandemic’s origins, President Biden signed a law in March allowing for potential declassification of information. However, neither experts nor the U.S. government can definitively determine whether the virus originated from a lab leak or not.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology declined to comment on these recent revelations. Kansas Senator Roger Marshall called for increased scrutiny over U.S. grants, emphasizing the importance of oversight, transparency, and accountability in global research grant administration.
In conclusion, the involvement of a Chinese scientist funded by U.S. grants who fell ill with COVID-19-like symptoms while conducting research on coronaviruses in Wuhan adds weight to the lab leak theory. However, the true origins of the pandemic remain uncertain, and greater transparency and accountability are needed for future research endeavors.
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