State Department Spokesman Matt Miller found himself in hot water during a press briefing in September 2023 when confronted by reporter Sam Husseini about the funding provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to China for gain-of-function research on coronaviruses.
Husseini asked Miller to clarify how much funding USAID had sent to work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and its collaborator Ralph Baric at the University of North Carolina.
“How much money went from USAID to this to the work at Wuhan and to their collaborator Ralph Barrick at the University of North Carolina to create, to collect and make coronaviruses that are weaponized, that are more deadly,” asked Husseini.
Miller was elusive in his response, stating, “First of all reject the implicit accusation in that question. And I do not have at my fingertips the particular details.”
Husseini persisted, asking whether Miller could confirm that no USAID funds were channeled to the Wuhan Institute. Miller deflected once again, choosing to call on another reporter rather than answer Husseini’s question directly.
“Are you saying for certain that no USAID money went to the Wuhan Institute of Virology?” asked Husseini.
“I am happy to take questions from those in this audience. I’m happy to answer them. I appreciate that they treat every person in this room, including myself, respectfully I called on you. I’m now calling on someone else,” said Miller while avoiding to answer the question.
“Respectfully, please tell me, what are you denying? What is your denial? It’s a non-denial denial,” said Husseini.
WATCH:
BREAKING – State Dept refuses to address how much USAID money went to Wuhan Institute of Virology and collaborator Ralph Baric, who developed techniques for weaponizing viruses (h/t @decensorednews)… pic.twitter.com/YGCkgkguHG
— Sam Husseini (@samhusseini) September 12, 2023
Husseini later tweeted, “Today’s ‘non-denial denial’ from Miller marks the fourth time the State Dept has stonewalled on this issue.”
Today’s “non-denial denial” from Miller marks the forth time the State Dept has stonewalled on this issue. Here’s Miller cutting off another question back in June:https://t.co/uTStcyOFDy
— Sam Husseini (@samhusseini) September 12, 2023
Husseini’s exchange with Miller came on the heels of a report by The BMJ, that revealed that funding for such viral collection work was recently cut off by USAID.
From the BMJ:
A flagship project for the controversial practice of hunting viruses among wildlife in South East Asia, Africa, and Latin America to prevent human outbreaks and pandemics is being quietly dropped by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) after private and bipartisan criticism over the safety of such research, The BMJ has found.
For more than a decade the US government has been funding international projects engaged in identifying exotic wildlife viruses that might someday infect humans. Although critics have raised concerns over the potentially catastrophic risks of such virus hunting activities,1 hundreds of millions of dollars in unabated funding have symbolised a commitment to the effort.
The shuttering of the project, as described in a new congressional budget document and during interviews with scientists and federal policy makers, marks an abrupt retreat by the US government from wildlife virus hunting, an activity that has also been funded by the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health. The turnabout follows early warnings raised by sceptics—including officials in the Biden White House—that the $125m (£99m; €115m) “DEEP VZN” programme could inadvertently ignite a pandemic. The misgivings continue to resonate, as the cause of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the world’s deadliest such event in a century, remains unproved.
The White Coat Waste Project published a report in June 2023 that accused USAID of funding Coronavirus research in China.
According to the White Coat Waste Project USAID sent $38 million from 2014 to 2019. This information was obtained through a FOIA request.
This week, President Trump shut down USAID. This appears to be another very smart move by President Trump.
Dr. Andrew Huff, an expert on the Coronavirus pandemic who previously worked at Ecohealth confirmed that USAID was funding the Chinese coronavirus research.
The Gateway Pundit reached out to Dr. Huff on Monday.
Dr. Huff told The Gateway Pundit that Dr. Peter Daszak clearly leveraged USAID funding to collect “preliminary data” before the full funding was later awarded for the coronavirus research.
Dr. Andrew Huff first tweeted this out in 2022.
8. EcoHealth worked AHEAD of funding when I worked there. They also did this related to the SARSCOV2 Gain of Function work at the WIV. In Peter’s proposal to NIH it is clearly stated that they leveraged USAID funding to collect “preliminary data” before the funding was awarded. pic.twitter.com/CaNxCfTskU
— Andrew G. Huff, PhD, MS (@AGHuff) March 12, 2022
USAID was funding hundreds of nefarious projects around the world. Now we know that included coronavirus research in China.
