More than six years after COVID-19 emerged in China and killed millions worldwide, newly released intelligence records show that the Defense Intelligence Agency was evaluating a detailed lab-origin scenario as early as March 2020 — weeks into the pandemic and well before the issue became a subject of public debate.
This post describes documents of Colorado State University (CSU) Professors Rebekah Kading and Tony Schountz, which U.S. Right to Know obtained from a public records request. Kading and Schountz are virologists who study bat-associated pathogens in hot-spots across the world. They collaborate with EcoHealth Alliance, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the Defense Advanced … Colorado State University documents on bat pathogen research
NIH’s biosecurity advisers and the Government Accountability Office both recommended better regulation of lab-generated pandemic viruses.
COVID-19’s genome shows signs consistent with genetic manipulation, according to a new preprint.
Top virologists may have continued privately discussing “all theories” of the pandemic’s origin in the days after they began outlining an influential article that dismissed the lab leak theory in February 2020, an email obtained by U.S. Right to Know suggests. The group — led by Wellcome Trust Director Jeremy Farrar and University of Sydney … FOIA reveals another secret call on COVID’s origin. The details are redacted.
An early World Health Organization report about the COVID-19 pandemic was influenced by political considerations in China, emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show. A World Health Organization mission of 13 international experts and 12 Chinese experts — led by Bruce Aylward, a senior advisor at the World Health Organization, and Wannian Liang, … Emails raise questions about China’s sway over first WHO mission on COVID-19
April 20, 3:40 p.m.: This story has been updated with comment from UTMB. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has the right to ask a partnering lab in the U.S. to destroy all records of their work, according to a legal document obtained by U.S. Right to Know. A memorandum of understanding between the Wuhan lab … Wuhan lab can delete data in ‘explosive’ legal agreement with U.S. lab
A virologist who coauthored a paper marginalizing the lab leak theory did not disclose his ties to the research group at the center of it. Director of Columbia University’s Center for Infection and Immunity Ian Lipkin has often worked with EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S.-based collaborator of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the group confirmed in … Virologist who tried to discredit the lab leak theory was once a ‘partner’ to EcoHealth Alliance
EcoHealth Alliance conducted field research for years in Southeast Asia, a region central to the origin of COVID-19, but some of the data appears to have been withdrawn from public view. EcoHealth Alliance, an American scientific organization that receives funds from several federal agencies, has come under scrutiny for its controversial work hunting for novel … Another missing database? EcoHealth project in Southeast Asia is under construction
A prominent scientist who has denounced a congressional investigation into gain-of-function research helped fund Wuhan Institute of Virology gain-of-function work flagged by congressional investigators. Peter Hotez, dean of the Baylor College of Medicine National School of Tropical Medicine, has been a fierce critic of potential hearings next year into a possible lab origin of COVID-19 … Critic of congressional probe into gain-of-function research helped fund Wuhan gain-of-function study
In the earliest days of the pandemic, Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins emailed about coronaviruses under study at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and about whether they had steered money to the lab, an email obtained by U.S. Right to Know shows. Collins, then leader of the National Institutes of Health, and Fauci, leader of … Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci emailed about whether NIH funded Wuhan lab before secret call
On February 11, 2020, Anthony Fauci met with American virologist Ralph Baric. A newly unearthed email provides a glimpse into what Fauci and Baric discussed.
U.S. health officials opposed a diplomatic letter requesting international scientists tour Wuhan’s coronavirus labs in the spring of 2020, emails show.
Scientists with connections to the Wuhan Institute of Virology — including Anthony Fauci — steered the U.S. national security state away from hypotheses about the origins of COVID-19 that could implicate their research, emails obtained through FOIA show.
The controversy over “Proximal Origin” represents years of unanswered questions about how the Covid lab leak hypothesis was cast as a conspiracy theory.
New language in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2026 calls on intelligence agencies to declassify intelligence records for public release, potentially lifting a veil of redactions on COVID origins evidence that largely has been kept secret for the past six years.
An analysis by the U.S. Defense Department’s intelligence agency concluded five years ago that the virus that caused COVID-19 could have been engineered in a Chinese laboratory and later escaped to spawn the pandemic that eventually killed millions of people, recently released documents obtained by US Right to Know show.
American officials worried that calling out the Wuhan Institute of Virology would “demand access that we ourselves would never provide.”
James Le Duc, a biosafety expert and virologist who collaborated closely with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, outlines how he might investigate whether that lab or any other in Wuhan could be implicated in the COVID-19 pandemic in an email obtained by U.S. Right to Know. In a June 2021 email titled “What would Jim … ‘What would Jim do?’: U.S. virologist close to Wuhan lab quietly called for investigation
An American virologist asked Wuhan Institute of Virology scientists to edit a briefing he prepared for Congressional staff, according to documents obtained by U.S. Right to Know. “I certainly do not want to compromise you or your research activities,” wrote leading biosafety expert and virologist James Le Duc to Shi Zhengli, a top virologist at … U.S. virologist let Wuhan scientists revise his Congressional briefing
State Department officials considered a lab accident to be the most likely cause of COVID-19 in the pandemic’s early months and worried that international virologists may help with a coverup, according to a 2020 memo obtained by U.S. Right to Know. “Origin of the outbreak: The Wuhan labs remained the most likely but least probed,” … Lab accident is ‘most likely but least probed’ COVID origin, State Dept. memo says
A former U.S. Agency for International Development official founded and worked for a controversial organization benefiting from USAID funds while he continued to receive six-figure paychecks from his USAID job, potentially running afoul of ethics laws, according to documents obtained by U.S. Right to Know. Emerging Pandemic Threats Division Director Dennis Carroll went on to … Celebrated virus hunter siphoned taxpayer funds for his private ‘Global Virome Project’
A new maximum biocontainment lab in Kunming, China, was certified three years ago while remaining under-the-radar in the U.S. biodefense community, documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show. China’s plans to build an ABSL-4 under the Institute of Medical Biology and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Kunming were previously known. But … U.S. Right to Know confirms a third maximum containment lab in China
The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in a hearing Tuesday continued to peel back the curtain on the sluggish early U.S. investigation into the origins of COVID-19. More than three years have passed since a highly transmissible novel coronavirus first emerged out of Wuhan, China, yet key details about the pandemic’s origin are still … Hearing exposes how politics slowed U.S. investigation into COVID origins
On May 24, 2021, the U.S. State Department released more records in response to our FOIA lawsuit. These may be of interest: “PRC claims of COVID transmission via cold chain food imports growing”: A November 18, 2020 State Department cable expressed skepticism of Chinese state media claims that SARS-CoV-2 was transmitted via imported cold chain … Three State Department cables
The journal Nature did not assess the reliability of important claims made in a November 17 addendum to a study on the bat-origins of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, correspondence with Nature staff suggests. On February 3, 2020, Wuhan Institute of Virology scientists reported discovering the closest known relative of SARS-CoV-2, a bat coronavirus called RaTG13. … No peer review for addendum to prominent coronavirus origins study?
Early in November 2019, Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) Director Zhiming Yuan turned down a trip to Geneva for a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting, according to emails obtained by U.S. Right to Know. The question is why? Dr. Yuan’s email from November 6, 2019 came at a time when some of the first cases … Why did Wuhan lab director decline trip to Europe before Covid-19 outbreak?
Sign up for our newsletter to get our latest stories delivered straight to your inbox.
