NIH Director Shredded Over Risky Research In Wuhan After CNN Interview Goes Sideways

While most corporate media outlets are throwing softballs at Dr. Anthony Fauci over revelations that the National Institutes of Health funded risky gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, Fauci's 'boss' - NIH Director Francis Collins - wasn't so lucky.

In a blistering Sunday night interview, CNN's Pamela Brown absolutely grilled Collins over the NIH's funding of New York-based nonprofit, EcoHealth alliance, which performed textbook Gain of Function research - genetically engineering bat coronaviruses so they can infect humans.

Now, the official story is that while EcoHealth violated their contract, and are allegedly 'in trouble' for failing to report their achievement, the NIH and NIAID maintain that the research still wasn't risky enough to qualify for enhanced oversight.

Breaking down the interview is Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin - who in March revealed in his book: "Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the Twenty-First Century" that the "Had funded a number of projects that involved WIV scientists, including much of the Wuhan lab's work with bat coronaviruses." In April, Rogin revealed that in 2018, diplomats with the US State Department warned over safety issues at Wuhan labs studying bat COVID. In short - few journalists are as qualified as Rogin to opine on what's going on.

Brown: "There was risky research being conducted in that lab with US taxpayer dollars that NIH was unaware of and is just now finding out. So it raises the question of what other risky experiments could be going on with US taxpayer funding that you don't know about." PRECISELY. Collins responds he doesn't think this kind of lax reporting is widespread. "This particular grantee is in trouble for not being completely transparent about the work they were doing and we are very much following up on that." No specifics.

"It certainly raises questions about transparency and oversight by the NIH of where this grant money goes Will the NIH now pull funding from EcoHealth Alliance?".

Collins misleads again, saying the EcoHealth funding in Wuhan was cut off but neglecting to mention that NIH and NIAID have awarded EcoHealth Alliance millions more in other contracts since then for other stuff.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nih-director-shredded-over-risky-research-wuhan-after-cnn-interview-goes-sideways