American scientists misled Pentagon on research in Wuhan

American researchers concealed their intention to conduct high-risk coronavirus research in Wuhan under lax safety standards from the Pentagon the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to documents obtained by U.S. Right to Know.

American scientists at the center of the "Lab leak theory" controversy appear to have concealed this from their desired funder – the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – in order to evade any national security concerns about doing high-level biosecurity work in China.

The documents call into question the credibility of these scientists' assurances that the pandemic could not have sprung out of their collaboration on coronavirus engineering research with the lab in Wuhan.

In addition to the national security risks, conducting coronavirus engineering and testing work in Wuhan entailed greater biosafety risks, the American researchers privately acknowledged.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has conducted research on SARS-related coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2 in biosafety level two conditions.

A progress report for that NIH grant for the year ending in May 2018 shows that the Wuhan Institute of Virology and EcoHealth Alliance conducted gain-of-function research on coronaviruses and tested them in mice engineered to express human receptors.

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.

Baric played a role in convincing the NIH to lift a pause on gain-of-function research on coronaviruses.

"Mice don't sneeze," Baric told NPR in 2014 in opposition to the gain-of-function research pause, alleging mice could therefore not transmit coronaviruses.

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.