In a comment on an early draft of the proposal, Daszak clarifies that the Wuhan Institute of Virology will in fact do much of this work, but that this is excluded from the formal proposal to make DARPA "Comfortable." The comment is addressed to Baric and Wuhan Institute of Virology Senior Scientist Zhengli Shi.
In another comment, Daszak said that he sought to "Downplay the non-US focus of this proposal" to DARPA by not highlighting the involvement of the Chinese researchers, Shi and Duke-NUS Medical School Professor Linfa Wang.
Daszak had the ability to push forward with research without funding when a separate National Institutes of Health grant was halted, an email obtained by U.S. Right to Know shows.
Daszak has previously deflected concerns about the DEFUSE proposal in part by pointing to language in the final proposal stating that the gain-of-function research would occur at the Baric lab in North Carolina.
Evidence suggests Baric was accurate in his prediction that researchers would "Freak out" about the coronavirus gain-of-function research underway in Wuhan's BSL-2 labs.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci - who had endorsed gain-of-function research and whose institute had helped underwrite the collaboration between EcoHealth Alliance, UNC and the Wuhan Institute of Virology - asked in February 2020 whether certain experiments could have led to the evolution of SARS-CoV-2.
The new documents also show the researchers intended to use less regulated SARS-related coronavirus research as proof of concept in order to extend their high-risk methods to more deadly viruses like Ebola, Marburg, Hendra and Nipah.
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