By Mary McCue Bell (The Washington Times)
U.S. government funding for more than 120 biolabs in over 30 countries was unveiled by outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who said many include pathogens that cause infectious diseases.
Such evidence regarding the funding of these laboratories has been “knowingly withheld” from the public and “intentionally covered up by powerful people falsely, claiming that they do not exist and accusing anyone who says otherwise to be foreign assets and traitors to America,” according to her statement.
Many of these U.S. government-funded biolabs are or have engaged in research using hazardous and highly contagious pathogens, including gain-of-function research — a scientific methodology that genetically alters an organism to enhance a biological function, widely used to develop vaccines but comes with biosecurity risks — with “little visibility or oversight.”
An executive order, signed by President Trump in May, halted federal funding for “dangerous gain-of-function” research and mandated a suspension of any active National Institutes of Health-funded projects that meet the definition. The order aims to prevent U.S. tax dollars from supporting high-risk pathogen research in countries of concern or nations lacking adequate oversight.
The new evidence includes million-dollar labs in Ukraine that may be at risk of “compromise” due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
The intelligence community previously warned that a U.S.-funded biolab in Ukraine likely housed pathogens that cause infectious diseases such as brucellosis and anthrax bacteria, plus remained “vulnerable” to longstanding threats of Russian attack, seizure or damage.
Over 40 labs in Ukraine included the storage of biological weapons’ pathogens from the Soviet era, “especially dangerous pathogen certification” and a repository of disease-causing pathogens, such as tuberculosis, swine fever, Newcastle disease, SARS and Ebola, according to the DNI press release.
The U.S. also paid Ukrainian scientists to study pathogenic avian flu and other infectious viruses in biocontainment labs.
“Despite the obvious potential for catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens in biolabs … politicians, so-called health professionals like [former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci], and entities within the Biden administration’s national security team lied to the American people about the existence of U.S.-funded and supported biolabs, and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth,” Ms. Gabbard said in the statement.
Aside from government entities like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Ukrainian scientific collaborator network includes numerous U.S. colleges: the University of Florida, University of Alaska, University of Tennessee, University of New Mexico and Kansas State University.
“ODNI will continue to work closely with partners across the government to identify where these labs are, what pathogens they contain to end dangerous Gain-of-Function research that threatens the health and well-being of the American people and people around the world,” Ms. Gabbard said.
This article was made available to WMAL via The Washington Times.
