A federal watchdog has weighed in on problems with a U.S. government grant that funded work in Wuhan, China, on bat coronaviruses that some onlookers claim led to the COVID19 pandemic.
, including WIV’s failure to provide NIH with laboratory notebooks related to the funded experiments.
The 18-month-long OIG audit examined that grant and two others to EcoHealth from 2014 to 2021 that totaled $8 million but focused largely on the nearly $600,000 that went to WIV, including work that created hybrid bat coronaviruses to study the potential of wild viruses to infect humans.
However, the audit refrains from commenting on whether the results of the WIV hybrid virus experiments constituted “enhanced growth” that should have potentially triggered the special HHS review. OIG “did not assess scientific results for any of the experiments or make any determination regarding the accuracy of NIH’s or EcoHealth’s interpretations of … research results,” the report says.
The audit found other problems by both NIH and EcoHealth. For example, the nonprofit billed NIH for $89,171 in unallowable costs, it concluded, including expenses such as a $5 alcoholic beverage and a staffer’s $3285 trip to a conference that was miscoded and should have been billed to a non-NIH grant.
OIG recommends that WIV—but not EcoHealth—be debarred from receiving NIH funding in the future, a step NIH supports but noted must be made by an HHS debarment official. A recent congressional spending bill bars any 2023 funding to WIV.that the audit “did not find significant issues with EHA’s grant oversight and compliance.
Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Report: Snapchat under federal probe over alleged social media drug buysSnap Inc., the company behind Snapchat, is under investigation by federal authorities probing the possible use of the social media platform in the sale of fentanyl-laced pills, it was reported.
Read more »
Report: Snapchat under federal probe over alleged social media drug dealsAccording to the report, FBI agents and U.S. Justice Department attorneys are focusing on fentanyl poisoning cases in which drug sales were arranged on the Snapchat platform.
Read more »
Judge slaps ex-Chicago college student who spied for China with 8 years in federal prisonA federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a former Chicago college student to eight years in prison for spying on behalf of the Chinese government.
Read more »
China's EXIM bank gives Sri Lanka debt extensionChina's Export-Import Bank of China (EXIM) has provided Sri Lanka with a debt extension, China's foreign ministry said on Thursday, confirming a Reuters report earlier this week..
Read more »