Rand Paul Questions Blinken on State/USAID Role in Funding Wuhan Institute of Virology

State Department "responds" in writing to my questions with vacuous non-response.

The State Department and USAID and have largely gotten a free ride regarding Covid origins.

My analysis in 2020 showed that USAID was the largest funder of EcoHealth Alliance, far exceeding the NIH and even exceeding the Pentagon.

And USAID funded the critical work described in the 2015 Nature Medicine article by Zhengli-Li Shi of the Wuhan Institute for Virology and Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina.

Sen. Rand Paul laid out how USAID and the State Department have stonewalled him when questioning Antony Blinken on Wednesday.

I pursued a similar line of questioning at State Department briefings on Feb. 28 — “USAID Funded EcoHealth Alliance and Wuhan Institute of Virology, Is Withholding Information” and on March 9 — “BREAKING: State Dept. Continues to Fund Programs Which Might Have Caused Pandemic. VIDEO: Claims it Was Funding ‘Biosafety’ and Claims Examination is ‘Conspiracy Theory’“ and got similar stonewalling and worse.

I think Sen. Paul’s questioning was quite good, but it makes his voting, along with the rest of Congress, for the recent legislation which fingers the WIV but not other institutions even more odd.

On Tuesday, I received an email purporting to answer to my March 9 questions. I replied, noting that it was vacuous and that it didn’t even claim to respond to my initial questions of Feb. 28. I’ve not received a reply. In the interest of transparency, I’m publishing the email I got. As I say, it’s empty and is simply more evidence of stonewalling — deny and delay. Perhaps the only interesting thing about it is that they don’t claim to “fund” “biosafety,” as Ned Price claimed on March 9, but simply that they say they ensure “compliance with all safety protocols and procedures.”

“USAID launched the PREDICT project in 2009 to illuminate both the threat that emerging viruses pose to us, as well as the impact that strategic investments can have on rapid disease detection and response. The project ended in 2020. The PREDICT project focused on understanding viral risk – efforts that led to a greater understanding of the diversity of viruses circulating in animals and the types of species linked with carrying certain types of viruses. Over its 10 years in existence, the PREDICT project demonstrated benefits to the American people by lowering pandemic risk in several ways, including:

• Bolstering infectious disease surveillance and laboratory capacity in partner countries, capacities were critical in the early response to the COVID-19 pandemic;

• Developing knowledge and information that is being used to develop new diagnostics, medicines, and vaccines that can be used against previously unknown viruses;

• Helping communities better understand and mitigate their risks associated with viruses spreading from animals to humans.

Since the PREDICT project ended in 2020, USAID has expanded its Global Health Security Program by:

• Doubling the number of partner countries we support in preventing, detecting, and responding to emerging infectious disease threats. USAID is taking the unprecedented step of expanding its work to 50 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Europe and Eurasia. This expansion is part of the whole-of-government commitment to meet Goal 2 of the National Biodefense Strategy to improve areas that are critical to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats at their source; and

• Establishing a dedicated Outbreak Response Team that is expanding USAID’s capabilities to respond to multiple infectious disease outbreaks simultaneously, as well as improving outbreak response coordination with country governments, multilateral partners, and other U.S. government agencies.

USAID takes adherence to safety protocols and procedures by implementing partners very seriously. USAID ensures compliance with all safety protocols and procedures.”