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And, another attack on President Obama, one which President Trump seemed to support.
www.yahoo.com
The origins of the coronavirus have become an increasingly hot-button issue, allowing conspiracy theories to gain traction online and among high-profile officials.
Claims that the U.S. government helped fund research into coronaviruses began to spread after the Daily Mail reported it obtained documents, which “show the Wuhan Institute of Virology undertook coronavirus experiments on mammals captured more than 1,000 miles away in Yunnan – funded by a $3.7 million grant from the US government.”
The report gained traction on social media, while the claim was repeated by high-profile political figures.
Furthermore:
In 2014, the NIH approved a grant to EcoHealth Alliance designated for research into “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.” The project involved collaborating with researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study coronaviruses in bats and the risk of potential transfer to humans.
The original five-year grant was reapproved by the Trump administration in July 2019. In total, $3,378,896 in NIH funding was directed from the government to the project.
The project, which was established “to understand what factors allow coronaviruses, including close relatives to SARS, to evolve and jump into the human population,” has yielded 20 scientific reports on how zoonotic diseases may transfer from bats to humans.
And, finally:
We rate this claim PARTLY FALSE because some of it was not supported by our research. It is misleading to claim that the Obama administration gave funding to a Chinese research institute. It is true that funds were provided to a project where an American research group worked alongside a Chinese organization. But claims that the funding in any way helped produce the current pandemic are unsubstantiated. Additionally, a total of $3.7 million was not given to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, only about $600,000.
Fact check: Obama administration did not send $3.7 million to Wuhan lab
Claims that the Obama administration funded coronavirus research may be referring to a grant provided by the NIH.
The origins of the coronavirus have become an increasingly hot-button issue, allowing conspiracy theories to gain traction online and among high-profile officials.
Claims that the U.S. government helped fund research into coronaviruses began to spread after the Daily Mail reported it obtained documents, which “show the Wuhan Institute of Virology undertook coronavirus experiments on mammals captured more than 1,000 miles away in Yunnan – funded by a $3.7 million grant from the US government.”
The report gained traction on social media, while the claim was repeated by high-profile political figures.
Furthermore:
In 2014, the NIH approved a grant to EcoHealth Alliance designated for research into “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.” The project involved collaborating with researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study coronaviruses in bats and the risk of potential transfer to humans.
The original five-year grant was reapproved by the Trump administration in July 2019. In total, $3,378,896 in NIH funding was directed from the government to the project.
The project, which was established “to understand what factors allow coronaviruses, including close relatives to SARS, to evolve and jump into the human population,” has yielded 20 scientific reports on how zoonotic diseases may transfer from bats to humans.
And, finally:
We rate this claim PARTLY FALSE because some of it was not supported by our research. It is misleading to claim that the Obama administration gave funding to a Chinese research institute. It is true that funds were provided to a project where an American research group worked alongside a Chinese organization. But claims that the funding in any way helped produce the current pandemic are unsubstantiated. Additionally, a total of $3.7 million was not given to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, only about $600,000.
