The Senate GOP introduces a bill investigating the NIH

Senate Republicans want to install a federal guardian within the National Institutes of Health amid fears a lack of oversight may have led to the Covid pandemic.

They have proposed legislation that would create an office of inspector general at the NIH to oversee federal funding for risky “gain-of-function” research in laboratories around the world.

It follows a federal audit that found the NIH failed to properly oversee how millions of taxpayer dollars were used for research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is at the heart of concerns about Covid lab leakage.

The new law was introduced by Tennessee Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, as well as Roger Marshall of Kansas and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.

Republican Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee (pictured) is leading the prosecution to create a state monitoring group within the broader NIH to improve oversight of state funding for risky research

Virologist Shi Zheng-li – nicknamed “Bat Lady” – is pictured in the lab. She hunted dozens of deadly Covid-like viruses in bat caves and studied them at WIV

Sen Blackburn said, “As the nation’s leading medical research agency, NIH oversees thousands of researchers and institutes and managed a budget of $45.1 billion last year.

However, they have been far from transparent, obscuring grants for gain-of-function (GoF) research in Wuhan and refusing to release critical data on claims of millions in royalties to internal scientists.

“The American people deserve to know that their tax dollars are being spent responsibly and to advance scientific research.

“The creation of an independent inspector general within the NIH will help restore much-needed accountability to the agency.”

The bill would give the president the power to select the officer to run the NIH OIG.

Democrats have a narrow majority in the Senate, dooming the bill as it is unlikely to get the votes it needs to pass.

There is a widespread theory that the coronavirus that caused the global pandemic escaped from the top-level biosafety laboratory in Wuhan as a result of functional research.

These experiments involve making a virus more infectious or deadly in hopes of forestalling a future outbreak. Proponents of winning functional tests say it will help humanity forestall future pandemics, but critics say the risk of triggering an outbreak outweighs any theoretical benefit.

Supporters of the “Lab Leak Theory” were initially met with ridicule and accusations of being xenophobic conspiracy theorists.

But a growing body of evidence supporting this theory is being published in respected journals and supported by more mainstream scientists.

The research facility in Wuhan is less than 10 miles from an animal slaughter market where the first batch of human cases was clustered. Some experts also claim that Covid’s unique spike protein, which it uses to infect humans, has traits of engineering.

However, others consider these scenarios unlikely and say there is some indirect evidence that Covid jumped from animals at the Huanan Seafood Market, where animals known to harbor Covid include raccoon dogs, hedgehogs, rats and squirrels, kept in deplorable conditions.

The GOP’s proposal follows an extensive review by the US Office of Inspector General, which found that the NIH and EcoHealth “failed to understand the nature of the research being conducted, identified potential problem areas, and took corrective action.”

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has top-level biosafety laboratories conducting research on dangerous pathogens

“With improved oversight, the NIH might have been able to take more timely corrective actions to mitigate the risks associated with this type of research,” the report added.

It looked at three taxpayer-funded research grants awarded between 2014 and 2021 to the now infamous EcoHealth Alliance, led by British scientist Peter Daszak.

The report found that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and EcoHealth “failed to understand the nature of the research being conducted, identified potential problem areas, and took corrective action.”

The EcoHealth Alliance received $8 million in federal grants between 2014 and 2021, which it sub-contracted to eight research organizations, including WIV.

Sen Roger Marshall said, “The NIH continues to operate as an autonomous government agency and waives policies that tightly regulate the grant-making process.

“The agency’s lack of grant oversight and management jeopardizes the integrity of federally funded research and leaves Americans vulnerable to dangerous disease outbreaks from laboratory accidents…we need expert investigators and investigators in a standalone IG office dedicated solely to overseeing this agency, To ensure this they are accountable to the American people and must restore public confidence in the integrity of the health authorities to protect us.’

The NIH is a huge research organization with over two sub-agencies specializing in a specific area, such as the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The latter was previously done by Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has become a highly controversial figure due to inconsistent safety policies during the pandemic, as well as evidence that he helped cover up evidence supporting the lab leak theory.

Sen Tuberville said: “The pandemic has highlighted the great need for transparency in our government’s institutions. The National Institutes of Health, where Dr. Fauci worked are no exception.

“Americans deserve to have an independent oversight arm within the NIH to ensure the agency is using our tax dollars responsibly and acting in the best interests of all Americans.”

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk

https://www.soundhealthandlastingwealth.com/health-news/senate-gop-introduces-bill-to-investigate-nih/ The Senate GOP introduces a bill investigating the NIH