US ends funding for China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on 17 July that it would suspend and then end funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China to protect the public interest.1A memo was sent to the House of Representatives oversight select subcommittee which has been investigating US grants to WIV. The memo details a lengthy record of failed communications between US agencies and the Wuhan institute. It said that WIV repeatedly refused to provide requested laboratory notebooks, electronic data records, and other information about safety and security. It concluded that the institute “lacks the present responsibility to participate in US federal government procurement and non-procurement programmes” and that “HHS believes that there is adequate evidence in the record for this debarment cause and that immediate action is necessary to protect the public interest.”The HHS gesture is largely symbolic because WIV has not received US funding since…
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