China has been accused of obstructing investigations into the origins of the COVID virus, and we can now add another piece to that puzzle.
We received 90 pages of records from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that show the State Department and Dr. Anthony Fauci’s agency, the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), knew immediately in January 2020 that China was withholding COVID data, and this was hindering risk assessment and response by public health officials.
The records also show that, nearly two years before the coronavirus outbreak, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) sent “experts” from the NIH-supported P4 lab at the University of Texas Medical Branch to train Wuhan Institute of Virology lab technicians in lab management and maintenance due to the Wuhan lab’s shortage of trained staff. The same April 2018 cable noted that an official from EcoHealth Alliance “plans to visit Wuhan to meet with Shi [Zhengli].”
We obtained the records through our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for records of communications, contracts and agreements with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (No. 1:21-cv-00696)). The lawsuit specifically sought records about NIH grants that benefitted the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The novel coronavirus outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.
After the outbreak, on January 8, 2020, Dr. Ping Chen, who had been NIAID’s top official in China, emails senior NIAID colleagues Gray Handley, Erik Stemmy, Gayle Bernabe, and Barney Graham with the subject line “PRC Response to Pneumonia Cases Shows Increased Transparency Over Past Outbreaks, but Gaps in Epidemiological Data Remain.” Chen writes:
The summary of the cable states:
On January 30, 2020, Chen forwards to senior NIAID colleagues Gray Handley, Gayle Bernabe, Joyelle Dominique, William Rosa, Tami Lu and Hilary Marsten a cable issued by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which provides a detailed situation report on Chinese government responses to the then-fast spreading SARS-CoV-2 virus from across the country. The cable discusses Chinese virus mitigation measures, infection case numbers, travel restrictions, and quarantine measures then taking place in Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenyang.
In a section discussing “Media/Social Media” reporting on the virus in China, the cable discusses a Global Times article about the “detention” in early January 2020 of eight Chinese residents for spreading “rumors” about the outbreak of the virus:
On April 15, 2020, an official whose name is redacted sends an email to colleagues labeled “WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology] Cables,” and writes, “As I am sure you are quite aware at this point the cables ESTH [State Department’s Environment, Science, Technology and Health Section] wrote on the WIV lab and the concerns we had about the findings of the papers on bat coronavirus research have become big news lately.”
An official forwards an email exchange from April 12, 2018, labeled “For your review – Cable on Wuhan Institute of Virology visit.” That email attached a cable titled “China Virus Institute Welcomes More U.S. Cooperation on Global Health Security.” The partially redacted summary of the cable begins:
The cable also mentions that there is also a “U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC)-supported [P4 lab] facility in Pune, India,” and that China “plans to stand up a second P4 lab in Harbin.” Harbin is the capital of Heilongjiang province in northeastern China.
The cable notes that Chinese officials, “described the [Wuhan] lab as a ’regional node’ in the global biosafety system and said it would play an emergency response role in an epidemic or pandemic.” It continues, “[E]xperts from the NIH-supported P4 lab at the University of Texas Medical Branch have trained Wuhan lab technicians in lab management and maintenance, institute officials said.” It went on, “NIH was a major funder, along with China’s National Science Foundation, of SARS research by the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s [redacted].” Finally, the cable notes, “[Redacted] with the EcoHealth Alliance (a New York City-based NGO that is working with the University of California Davis to manage the [redacted], plans to visit Wuhan to meet with Shi [Zhengli].”
Well prior to the outbreak, on October 2, 2017, NIAID Associate Director Gray Handley forwards to colleagues a State Department cable titled “China’s Interest in the Global Virome Project Presents an Opportunity for Global Health Cooperation,” which another official notes “seems relevant to biobanking, IP [likely Intellectual Property], pandemic flu, and a bunch of other issue areas.”
The summary of the cable begins:
The cable states: “U.S-China collaboration on the Global Virome Project in an opportunity to lead innovation in science, collaborate with China, and potentially contribute to scientific breakthroughs.”
The records include a February 23, 2018, email between the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and NIH headquarters, in which NIH officials were monitoring “China Health News from Chinese Media through 02/23/2018:”
- Research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology into how bats “harbor highly pathogenic viruses like Ebola, Marburg and SARS coronavirus but do not show clinical signs of disease.”
- New Chinese discoveries that certain Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) could be used to combat bacterial and viral infections which Western medicines could not address due to growing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to the Western drugs. They note, “Previous experiences showed than TCM remedies can be used as a substitute for Western antibiotics in the presence of some viral diseases, or lower the viral load” and that “further largescale clinical trials are needed before TCM antibiotics can be embraced and promoted globally.”
- A new nano-technology based flu vaccine the Chinese were developing at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
- Chinese advances in “Human Gene Therapy”, in which “China is helping to advance gene and cell therapy and genome editing research by creating novel viral and nonviral vectors for gene delivery and innovative applications of CRISPR technology in a broad range of disease areas.”
These documents show that Fauci’s agency has been hiding information on China’s failure to provide essential data on COVID-19. The slow-rolling and stonewalling by Fauci’s agency on China, gain of function, and its COVID response generally is pure obstruction.
We have been deeply involved in investigations into the origins of COVID-19 and have brought a number of facts to light.
In July 2021, Judicial Watch obtained records from NIAID officials in connection with the Wuhan Institute of Virology revealing significant collaborations and funding that began in 2014. The records revealed that NIAID gave nine China-related grants to EcoHealth Alliance to research coronavirus emergence in bats and was the NIH’s top issuer of grants to the Wuhan lab itself.
In June 2021, Judicial Watch obtained documents from HHS revealing that from 2014 to 2019, $826,277 was given to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci.
In March 2021, Judicial Watch publicly released emails and other records of Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. H. Clifford Lane from HHS showing that National Institutes of Health (NIH) officials tailored confidentiality forms to China’s terms and that the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted an unreleased, “strictly confidential” COVID-19 epidemiological analysis in January 2020.
In October 2020, we uncovered emails showing a WHO entity pushing for a press release, approved by Dr. Fauci, “especially” supporting China’s COVID-19 response.
It’s clear that our own medical bureaucrats, like the Chinese, have been less than forthcoming about this whole troubling matter.