Shocking: U.S. government gave $3.7 million grant to Wuhan lab accused of being the source of coronavirus outbreak after performing experiments on horseshoe bats

On April 3, we wrote a story of about a study from two Chinese scientists that “virus likely originated from horseshoe bats used for research in two China labs.” The two labs are Wuhan Institute of Virology and Wuhan Center for Disease Control (WHCDC), a nearby biolab run by China’s Centers for Disease Control.

Many blamed China for lack of transparency. Now a new report found that one of the two laboratories at the at the center of scrutiny over a potential coronavirus leak has been using U.S. government money to carry out research on bats from the caves. The Wuhan Institute of Virology received $3.7 million grant from the US government to conduct research on horseshoe bats, according to a report from Washington Examiner.

The grant was part of coronavirus experiment on mammals captured more than 1,000 miles away in Yunnan. In addition, the COVID-19 genome sequencing has been traced back to bats found in Yunnan caves but it was first thought to have transferred to humans at an animal market in Wuhan.

As recently as 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture purchased live animals, such as cats and dogs, using U.S. tax dollars at Chinese meat markets similar to the one in Wuhan, which has been tied to early cases of COVID-19, Washington Examiner reports. The department also paid for the animals to be slaughtered and transported back to the United States for experiments in which their remains were fed to other animals. The new revelation further sparks fears that the lab, and not the market, is the original outbreak source.

In 2017, the National Institutes of Health authorized two animal testing labs at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which researches human infectious diseases just a few miles from the local market, to receive tax dollars for animal experiments. One research included coronavirus studies involves bats that some members of Congress said might have been a catalyst for the outbreak.

Commenting on the grant, US Congressman Matt Gaetz said, “I’m disgusted to learn that for years the US government has been funding dangerous and cruel animal experiments at the Wuhan Institute, which may have contributed to the global spread of coronavirus, and research at other labs in China that have virtually no oversight from US authorities.”