What happened when Trump tried to stop U.S. funding for the Communist Chinese Wuhan Lab


Listen to top scientists and editors from esteemed medical journals and you can’t help but conclude there is such a thing as a “scientific establishment.” And it’s been as corrupted by politics and misinformation as many in politics and the media.

In my 2017 investigation into “Fake Science,” Dr. Marcia Angell, the first woman to serve as Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, explained why she says a large percentage of published studies are not to be believed.

“I came to the New England Journal of Medicine in 1979,” says Angell. “Starting about then was when you saw the drug companies assert more and more control until finally they over the next couple of decades, they began to treat the researchers as hired hands. They would design the research themselves. You know you can do a lot of mischief in how you design a trial. Or ‘we’ll test this drug and we’ll tell you whether it can be published or not,’ and so if it’s a positive study, it’s published; if it’s a negative study, it’ll never see the light of day.”

Watch my investigation into Covid-10 origins, separating fact from rumor.

That sentiment is shared by Dr. Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of the British journal Lancet. In 2015, he wrote a scathing editorial saying, “Much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue; science has taken a turn towards darkness.”

The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue.

Dr. Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief, Lancet

These scientists are joined by many others who say that industry and special interests have co-opted the research process, academic institutions, federal agencies and public health groups to such a degree that it can be impossible to get unconflicted, accurate scientific information. At the very least, it’s difficult to know what can be trusted and what should not.

This phenomenon was never more important than during the Covid-19 pandemic when so many voices are shouting “Follow the science!” and when perfectly valid opinions and scientific findings are being censored, silenced and controversialized by Big Tech and some in the media.

All of this helps explain what happened last year when President Trump took what seemed to many to be the perfectly reasonable step of ordering a halt to U.S. taxpayer funding of the Communist Chinese research lab in Wuhan that could have been the source of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In April 2020, the Chinese had refused to provide samples, allow an inspection of the Wuhan lab, or otherwise cooperate on steps necessary to help figure out the pandemic and its origins. When Trump got word that the U.S. was sending taxpayer money to the lab and its scientists, he ordered it stopped. Funds were blocked to the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance that was responsible for dispensing some U.S. taxpayer money to the Wuhan lab.

What happened when the funding stopped? 

The scientific establishment kicked into action.

Scientists told the press— which dutifully reported it— that the funding cuts were political in nature. Uncalled for. Going to cost lives.

The backlash was so strong that most people probably don’t know this, but not long after the funding was cancelled, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reinstated the grant to EcoHealth Alliance.

At least there were some conditions this time. Under orders from Trump, the China bat coronavirus part of the grant was suspended pending the Wuhan Institute of Virology granting a request for an outside inspection. 

NIH also made the project contingent upon getting responses from the Chinese to outstanding inquiries regarding the lab’s practices and the Covid-19 outbreak. NIH also wanted EcoHealth Alliance to obtain a virus sample from the Wuhan lab.

EcoHealth Alliance and its leader Peter Daszak criticized the commonsense conditions saying they made their crucial research “impossible.” The press covered the story in lockstep, in a one-sided on-narrative fashion. Here’s what NPR said: “The U.S. government has suddenly terminated funding for a years-long research project in China that many experts say is vital to preventing the next major coronavirus outbreak.”

As for the theory that Covid-19 could have originated at the Wuhan lab, the same NPR story dismissively wrote: “As noted in an NPR story published last week, many scientists have discounted that theory as nearly impossible.”

But as I’ve reported, many scientists did not discount the theory as “nearly impossible.” Numerous scientists directly involved in the genetic analysis, and in related projects, had already concluded the Chinese lab was the most likely culprit, and genetic analysis by U.S. government scientists had already revealed hallmarks of man’s intervention within the virus. You just didn’t hear about it much on the news or online because the discussion wasn’t allowed.

Of course, the “experts” the media were citing were often the very conflicted scientists involved in controversial research with the Chinese to begin with. This was not disclosed in most of the news reports. 

Sixty Minutes went a step further and published what, in hindsight, is an embarrassingly obsequious report on EcoHealth Alliance’s Daszak. Instead of pointing to Daszak’s controversial research partnerships with China and “gain of function” work, the story portrayed him largely as savior of all things viral, a man unfairly undercut by an unscientific and political White House under Trump. 

And the Sixty Minutes story didn’t reveal that, behind the scenes, Daszak and Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, were working to discredit the “lab theory,” usually without publicly disclosing their own roles in securing U.S. taxpayer funds for controversial research partnerships with the Communist Chinese scientists at the lab.

Then on Aug. 27, 2020, it was announced that the National Institutes of Health had awarded an even larger grant of taxpayer money, $7.5 million, to EcoHealth Alliance.


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42 thoughts on “What happened when Trump tried to stop U.S. funding for the Communist Chinese Wuhan Lab”

  1. This is only one of many instances of Trump being ignored,bypassed, or otherwise thawarted in his efforts to govern as he was elected to do. The deep state of unelected”officials”exists in great strength..

    1. remember Obama’s Senior Executive Service/SES? countless politically aligned career bureaucrats got appointed in mid- and higher managent positions, detrimental to the institutions and organisations where they appeared. any semblance of meritocracy ended then and there.

      1. F. Collins should resign.
        As NIH Director, Dr. Collins should have appointed an independent, uncompromised, professional, to speak for Fauci’s office.
        Another Institute sullied.

    2. I think “Shadow Government” is the preferred pronoun. It is both descriptive and more instructive for readers. More importantly, “Deep State” sounds Qanon-like, which will only serve to shut the minds of all those who need to read and understand the true nature of today’s federal government.

  2. What can we expect from the MSM news but biased reporting when it comes to medical science. Look at all the advertising dollars big pharma spends on TV/Cable and the power that gives them to dictate what is actually reported.
    Bio-researcher Dr. Judy Mikovits first reported in March 2019 that covid-19 was manufactured and explained what she saw in covid-19 that gave her that conclusion. But she has been “black-balled” by the media due to accusations (now proven false) and so ignored and discredited.
    Eco-Health received about $1.4mm in 2014 for direct funding of the Wuhan Lab to research covid using gain-of-function methods. The monies were released over a five-year period. By the time Trump found out the last $200k was delayed. And as we see the scientific establishment got around his concerns anyway.
    Thank you for keeping this important news in the public eye!

    1. Lubos Motl, @the reference frame, notes that a Czech researcher gave, early 2020, evidence of A lab origin.

    2. I suspect you did not mean March 2019. The earliest reports of the virus (with no name at the time) seem to be =November 2019.

      1. Actually, it was earlier in 2019. When the Military World Games were being performed in Wuhan in October 18-28, military athletes came home and stated it was like a ghost town. An article written by a group of researchers at Harvard, stated satellite imagine showed an uptick in traffic to 6 area Wuhan hospitals in August (Nsoesie et al. 2020) and 3 virologist (WebMD, 2021) from the Wuhan lab fall ill in September causing a black out at the lab and reports of deep decontamination measures taking place. At the same time, search engine increase for information related to cough and diarrhea was also taking place in Wuhan.

  3. Another great example why we need real reporting in our world. Who’s going to protect us from “the money”? Thanks Sharyl!

  4. What is the US doing funding a duel purpose bio lab in China to start with? And, what were the French thinking when they built it for the Chinese? If it does conclusively turn out that CV-19 was indeed the product of gain of function research partially funded by the US gov’t, should the world hold the US responsible (likely), then the French should be in that boat along with us! The Chinese would probably skate just like all their Human Rights Abuses are ignored (even by the Islamic World it seems). Go Figure!

    1. I think the USA believed we had to research this type of virus for national defense purposes. It might have been legally impossible or cost-prohibitive to do it in the USA so they contracted it out to China.

      1. So, if it is vital to our national defense, why contract it out to our most likely opponent in a conflict? The same logic would follow that China and Russia should be building our military aircraft, ships, drones, and missiles.

      2. Obama called for a pause of gain of function in the US. Documents in the public domain show this. Can’t help wondering if the Chinese contract was mere outsourcing of this work. I would say yes, but I am not sure of the timeline.

        1. However, 9 days before Obama left office, he instructed his administration to lift the band, point 1. Point 2, it was Fauci who awarded the money to Peter Daszak of the EcoHealth Alliance, knowing that the funds would be filtered through to China. It is all included on the grant proposal. Right down to Shi Zhengli name being on the grant. Point 3, Communism is very much alive. Read about Peter Daszak’s family history. Then take a glanse at George Soros history. Then take a look at Fauci. He graduated and went straight to the NIH to work. He has no idea on patient/doctor relationships.

      3. Or it was easier to do it secretly in China than here in the US or most anywhere else. CCP has a solid hold on information in China.

    2. EXACTLY! I wondered that from the beginning. I am not a virologist, but anyone with reasonable knowledge of scientific method would reach the same

      Unfortunately, Fauci did have a very good scientific reputation, and he could salvage it by coming clean and admitting that contributing support for the Wuhan research was a big mistake. Moreover, he should get off the continuing mask nonsense and admit to that mistake as well. This will be a tough sell, but there you are.

  5. YES THERE IS AND HAS BEEN THING CALLED (SCIENTIFIC ESTABLISHMENT) FOR MANY YEARS . GO ALL THE WAY BECK TO WHEN THEY SAID POT WAS SO DANGERST . WE KNOW NOW THEY LIED. AND THAT IS WHERE THEY GOT THERE START . BECAUSE THE LIED FOR THE AMERICA GOVAMENT. THEY LIE TO US ALL . AND MANY ARE STILL DOING THAT . LIKE HERE IN FL . 72 &VOTED FOR LEAGLE POT YEARS BACK . AND STILL THE BOUGHT AND OWNED RNC TRASH HAS STOPED THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE . I AM FOR TRUMP . BUT THE REST OF THE RNC CAN KISS MY ASS . YOU BOUGHT AND OWNED BY THE BIG TOBACCO.ALCHAOL, DRUG INDUSTRIES AND COTTON TOO . THEY ALL WOULD BE HURT WITH LEGAL POT. NOW THE POT DONT KILL AND THERE PRODUCTS DOES . WELL NOT COTTON . BUT THE REST . THAT MAKES THEM PART OF ALL THE SUFFING OF ALL THEM MILLIONS . SO LOCK THEM UP

  6. People who disagree with the global warming panic are censored on Facebook and elsewhere, labeled as “deniers” and worse. People who pushed invermectin were censored by Facebook, Twitter and others, and were labeled kooks that no one should listen to. Abigail Shrier wrote a book examining the astronomic increase in recent years of gender dysphoria and how much of this increase appears to be due to peer pressure among emotionally distraught young women. Likewise, anyone who dared to claim the Wuhan virus was manufactured in a laboratory was a kook who must be censored. Are we seeing a trend here?

    Increasingly the Left is demanding we believe their message when it comes to one of their pet projects. The seemingly endless list of their projects that are morally or ethically wrong, damaging to our country and our people, designed to give the Left more power, or whatever, is protected every day with censorship, bullying, and worse. When are we going to awaken and speak up? When are we going to find the courage we once had, but now seems to have disappeared, to fight for what is right? I guess it all starts with schools and how we are educated, but, that too, has been utterly corrupted by the liars and manipulators in our government and local leadership.

    1. I agree. And nothing can turn this ship around now except a REAL revolution. After they stole the election, that was made clear. Seriously. There is no other way but a REAL REVOLUTION. Do i want that? No. So many would die, but we will end up like Venezuela otherwise. This is their plan for us. It’s just a matter of time.

  7. Chauncey Gardiner

    Yet another item to file under “Soviet Science” — that is, the science of commit to conclusions first, torture the data to conform later.

  8. Edward Lizotte Jr

    Why should we believe climate change science any more than this science. Sure we are effecting our environment. At the amount that requires us to blow up the budget? They scientist dance to the money.
    Makes me wonder where the lying stops.

  9. We knew the intelligence community community was powerful and capable of silencing their detractors, but the scientific bureaucracy at the CDC and NIH have now followed suit with Captain Fauci at the helm. Trump was right about many things that are now turning out to be true, but the main stream media was deliberate in burying their heads in the sand instead of engaging in real fact finding journalism. Thank you Ms. Atkins for striving to deliver true investigative journalism based upon facts. and not political advocacy.

  10. We knew the intelligence community community was powerful and capable of silencing their detractors, but the scientific bureaucracy at the CDC and NIH have now followed suit with Captain Fauci at the helm. Trump was right about many things that are now turning out to be true, but the main stream media was deliberate in burying their heads in the sand instead of engaging in real fact finding journalism. Thank you Ms. Atkins for striving to deliver true investigative journalism based upon facts. and not political advocacy.

  11. Seems like a few persons still want to represent the independence of the fourth estate. Good for you Sharyl.
    This essay brings to mind that event…“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
    Who is Scientist and who is politician.? Nevermind they say trust the science.. Just trust the science.
    Politicians and Scientists now one and the same… and we all know NEVER to trust a politician.

  12. The great Civil War historian Shelby Foote stated that a history like his could not have been published much earlier than 100 years after the war because tempers had to cool off.

    I hope it does not take that long to get the truth which appears to be coming out about the virus and its origins. However, it will surely take some length of time for tempers to cool and a fair evaluation of Trump’s presidency and his handling of the virus to emerge.

  13. Rob from Staten Island

    Trump had China on the ropes from his tariffs. Even though so many of our own politicians (in bed with CCP) begged Trump not to impose them, he knew better, and did it anyway. Every other week, China would become belligerent, Trump slapped another few billion. It worked beautifully, so China needed to get rid of Trump. The best way, hit him where it hurts – the economy. China has lots of experience with pandemics, so this was a layup for them. Only thing was, in order for it to succeed, they needed boots on the ground here in the US. So whom else had as much ambition to get rid of Trump as the Chinese? Yep, Democrats. Trump was the greatest single threat to the liberal establishment in decades. Ill bet China worked together with Democrats to levy this pandemic, a convenient 8 months before the election. A pandemic would also enable Democrat’s to use mail in ballots. Not hard to stuff ballot boxes in counties you control, that are full of rabid community organizing liberals. Our own federal govt is full of deep staters, thanks to Obama, the professional community organizer who recognized you need real support from within to institute real “change”. Thats how the Wuhan lab got financed. Honorable mention goes to the BLM rioters, AKA Democrat operatives, whos main purpose was to sow intimidation and fear in every major city for months, in case any judge got cute and entertained hearing an election lawsuit. Who wants to be the one person who changed the election outcome, and have rioters at their house? Great plan. However, there are some election workers and a Democrat judge in GA (Fulton County) who didnt get the memo. They provided sworn affidavits of witnessing pristine stacks and stacks of mail in ballots 100% for Biden with no creases, different stock paper, and the oval perfectly filled in with the same crescent moon shaped part not filled, and are very close to doing a forensic audit of 147,000 ballots. Im sure theyll get a visit soon from the Democrat operatives who have perpetrated this ugly chapter in US history.

    1. It’s too late. They’ll be suicided and or no one will care. No one even cares anymore. That’s what is so disturbing. So many KNOW it was stolen and they don’t care. We can provide all the hard core evidence. It doesn’t matter! The left does what they want. They are no rules for them. Look at blm and Antifa. They do what they want!

    2. The super spreader was the Military World Games held in Wuhan in October. More than 100 countries sent athletes to this event. JS

  14. Why is the American Taxpayer funding research at the Wuhan Lab in Communist China? Why is the lab not obtaining funds from Communist China? It’s not like communist China is broke. Their bank account is considerably larger than the U.S.

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