The US has allocated more than $3 million to research the risks of coronaviruses in bats and their transmission to humans, distributing grants to several research organizations, including the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, Report informs referring to The Intercept.
The Intercept has obtained more than 900 pages of documents detailing the work on US funding for virological research in China, including a grant from the National Institutes of Health in 2014-2019.
The Institute of Virology in Wuhan, the future epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, is listed among the grantees.
The publication of materials gave another reason for speculation that a project funded by US taxpayers could contribute to the emergence of COVID-19.
The US intelligence community has previously admitted that it doesn’t have enough information to determine whether the coronavirus is a natural phenomenon or the result of a lab leak in Wuhan.