The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has been found to be uncertain about the exact amount of funding it has channeled, directly or indirectly, to Chinese entities for virus research with pandemic potential, as per a recent report by the DOD's Office of Inspector General (OIG).
This revelation, as reported by the Daily Caller, has raised eyebrows and concerns about the DOD's internal tracking system and its ability to monitor the allocation of taxpayer money.
The OIG's investigation uncovered that the DOD has been funding Chinese entities, either directly or through subgrants, to conduct research on pathogens and their enhancement. However, the exact amount remains unknown due to "limitations" in the DOD's tracking system. The funding of such research in China has been under scrutiny since the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic. Several government entities believe the pandemic began due to a leak from a Chinese laboratory conducting U.S. government-backed gain-of-function research.
Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Publics Trust, expressed his concern about the findings, stating, Incompetence, absurdity, insanity; its hard to find a word that adequately describes this. Of all the things that DOD tracks, funds for dangerous research that could find their way to a hostile regime should be at the top of the list of those they keep close tabs on. He further questioned the DOD's ability to track its assets, including nuclear warheads, and lamented the potential erosion of public trust in the military.
The OIG's review was mandated by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2024, signed into law by President Joe Biden in December 2023. The investigation aimed to determine the amount of taxpayer money funneled through various agreements to Chinese research labs or to fund research in China or other foreign countries that could have led to the enhancement of pandemic potential pathogens from 2014 through 2023.
The OIG report revealed that 12 grant awards fit the description of the investigation, seven of which were subgrants or subcontracts provided to entities in China or other foreign countries for research related to enhanced pathogens. The review also identified an additional $9.9 million in funding that reached Chinese entities for research unrelated to pathogens.
However, the OIG faced significant challenges due to limitations in the DOD's systems used to track contracts and grants. Consequently, the full extent of DOD funds provided to Chinese research laboratories or other foreign countries for research related to enhancement of pathogens of pandemic potential remains unknown.
The report further highlighted that the DOD's grant tracking systems posed "significant constraints" that "hindered [its] ability to conduct a thorough examination" of DOD's involvement in funding this specific type of research.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) had previously conducted a similar review of DOD's spending and Chinese entities receiving taxpayer dollars to conduct research on pathogens of pandemic potential. Its final report, published in September 2022, also detailed similar struggles with the DOD's grant and sub-grant tracking systems.
The Department of Energy (DOE) has concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic most likely began when the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, which was the site of gain-of-function research funded by the U.S. government via an organization called EcoHealth Alliance. Similarly, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray has acknowledged that his organization has reached a similar conclusion.
However, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci has recently reiterated his position that a lab leak is the less likely scenario of the two. The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed the lives of more than one million Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and millions more globally, while the American policy response to the pandemic has inflicted considerable economic and social damage on the general public.
The DOD has yet to respond to a request for comment on these findings. The lack of transparency and accountability in the allocation of funds for potentially dangerous research is a matter of grave concern that requires immediate attention and rectification.
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