Fact Check: Did Joe Biden Authorize Taxpayer Funding For the Wuhan Institute of Virology?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Online COVID-19 conspiracies have been circulating since the virus was first discovered in Wuhan, China, in late 2019.

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The Claim

One Twitter user posted on Thursday: "After refusing to allow the WHO to access the infamous Wuhan lab at the heart of the Covid-19 pandemic President Biden has authorized the Wuhan Institute of Virology to receive US taxpayer funding through 2024."

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False.

Biden did not authorize U.S. taxpayer money to go to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology received partial funding from the NIH's grant provided to the EcoHealth Alliance for "Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence." The grant was awarded by the NIH while under President Barack Obama's administration and reapproved in 2019 by the Trump administration.

The NIH awarded EcoHealth Alliance a separate grant of $7.5 million to help establish the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases, during the Trump administration.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/fact-check-did-joe-biden-authorize-taxpayer-funding-for-the-wuhan-institute-of-virology/ar-BB1dQlX2?li=BBnb7Kz

[DBoon]

1. I suspect the US and USSR collaborated on matters of public health

Even during the dark days of the Cold War.

Contagious diseases don't care about your ideology, nation, or ethnic background.

[brush]

2. The Obama admin had scientists on the ground in China working...

in cooperation with their researchers to guard against new viruses/pandemics (as the Obama admin also had on the African continent during the ebola outbreak). The following is of note as it typifies trump's ignorance and attitude towards the virus. Had he left a full US contingent there the virus may not have even reached here and the rest of the world. Biden did not fund any Wuhan facility.

Exclusive: U.S./trump slashed CDC staff inside China prior to ...
www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus...

It has worked in China for 30 years. The CDC’s China headcount has shrunk to around 14 staffers, down from approximately 47 people since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017.