The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) shipped 1000s of virus samples to a biolab in Wuhan, China despite having no formal approval or safety protocols, the Daily Caller first reported on Tuesday.
Newly released documents reviewed by the outlet show that USAID facilitated the delivery of nearly 11,000 virus samples from Yunnan Province to a biolab in Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 global pandemic. The Wuhan lab has become infamous for its substandard safety protocols and ties to the People’s Liberation Army.
The shipments were made with no effort to ensure the samples were not used in bioweapons or remained accessible to U.S. government. The virus samples were derived from humans, bats, and rodents and were collected over the course of a 10-year period.
USAID had funded a $250 million public health initiative called PREDICT run by the University of California-Davis which collected viral samples from all over the world. The program began in 2009 and was intended to be an early warning pandemic system seeking to “identify new emerging infectious diseases that could become a threat to human health.”
Once funding was no longer available, a long-term storage facility for the collected samples in Wuhan was chosen.
Internal memos obtained by U.S. Rights to Know through a FOIA lawsuit show there was little protocol in place for the transfer. “No need [sic] information from Yunna. They were never an official partner for PREDICT. All samples they helped collected [sic] are sent to, tested, and stored in Wuhan,” wrote a PREDICT staff member to UC-Davis colleagues.
In a statement to the outlet, a senior State Department official said, “Investigations involving USAID’s former funding of global health awards remain active and ongoing. The American people can rest assured knowing that under the Trump Administration we will not be funding these controversial programs.”
Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the official closure of USAID saying that years of various factions manipulating its “charity based” model had created a “globe-spanning NGO industrial complex at taxpayer expense.”
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