New records from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, obtained by Judicial Watch, reveal significant connections, including funding, to the Wuhan Institute of Virology beginning in 2014. The records also include an email from the Vice Director of the Wuhan Lab asking an NIH official for help finding disinfectants for decontamination of airtight […]
New records from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, obtained by Judicial Watch, reveal significant connections, including funding, to the Wuhan Institute of Virology beginning in 2014.
The records also include an email from the Vice Director of the Wuhan Lab asking an NIH official for help finding disinfectants for decontamination of airtight suits and indoor surfaces.
NIH virologist Jens Kuhn received the email from Wuhan Institute of Virology Vice Director Yuan Zhiming, with the subject “asking for help.”
“I am writing to you to ask for your help. Our laboratory is under operation without pathogens, and we are now looking for the disinfectants for decontamination of airtight suits and surface decontamination indoor decontamination. We have tried several ones to determine their antiviral efficacy and corrosion to pipeline and wastewater treatment equipment. Unfortunately, we have found a good candidate. I hope you can give us some help, to give us some suggestions for the choice of disinfectants used in P4 laboratory.
What kind of disinfectants for decontamination of airtight protective clothes?
What kind of disinfectants for surface decontamination in door?
What kind of disinfectants for air decontamination in door?
What kind of disinfectants for infectious materials indoor?
What is the approval procedure for the choice of disinfectants in laboratory?
I am sorry to disturb you and I really hope you could give us some suggestion and cooment
[sic].
Best regards and looking forward to seeing you in Wuhan.
Yuan Zhiming"
Additionally, the records show that, in 2018, Dr. Ping Chen, the NIAID Representative in China, learned of a “type of new flu vaccine using nano-technology from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology” and that the Chinese had blocked all links to reports on the new technology. This led Chen to write an urgent “night note” to U.S. government officials: “The intranasal nano-vaccine can target broad-spectrum flu viruses and induces robust immune responses.”
The documents were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for records and agreements with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Specifically, the lawsuit requested records about NIH funding.
Judicial Watch reports that the nine grants include the following:
- One grant every year from 2010 to 2012 to EcoHealth Alliance, working with Chinese to study “Risk of Viral Emergence from Bats.”
- One grant every year from 2014 to 2017 to EcoHealth Alliance, working with Chinese collaborator Changwen Ke of the CDC in a project called “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence”
- One grant in 2012 to EcoHealth Alliance working in a project called “Comparative Spillover Dynamics of Avian Influenza in Endemic Countries”
- One grant in 2018 to EcoHealth Alliance working in a project called “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence”
Additionally, NIAID under Fauci gave the Wuhan lab $826,000 for bat coronavirus research from 2014 to 2019.
