US bars Wuhan Institute of Virology from receiving US funding over COVID origin suspicion

United States on Wednesday officially banned the funding for China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) for the next 10 years, according to the reports. The move comes as there's increasing evidence of the leak theory of the SARS-CoV-2 from the lab back in 2020 that prompted governments worldwide to instate lockdowns that impacted the global economy. 

United States Office of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra has reportedly dispatched an official letter to WIV Director General Dr Yanyi Wang this week stating that it is halting the American funding for the risk-prone gain-of-function experiments that are conducted on the coronaviruses that emerge in the bats. The grant said Becerra will be stopped until July 16, 2033. The letter, cited by the New York Post, read that "attempts had been made to contact the lab via fax, email and mail about HHS’s decision to suspend funding in July, but no WIV officials had contested the designation or even responded to the agency."

Meanwhile, the move was welcomed by the Republicans. “After years of conducting dangerous gain-of-function research at inadequate biosafety levels, cutting off all American taxpayer dollars from the WIV is an essential and obvious step in the right direction,” Rep. Brad Wenstrup, chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic was quoted ass saying. 

WHO asks China to give ‘full access’ to solve COVID origins

The chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) this week asked China, where the novel virus was found to have leaked in Wuhan, to allow "full access" to the second team that will probe the pandemic. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the genesis of the coronavirus pandemic still remains unclear nearly four years since the first COVID-19 cases prompted the central government of China to impose a lockdown in Wuhan and other cities in Hubei for containment of what went on to become thdeadliest and most contagious virus of the century. 

Beijing must stand ready to offer more information on the origins of COVID-19 as the agency will soon begin a second probe into the SARS-CoV-2's global spread, Tedros reportedly informed. "We’re pressing China to give full access, and we are asking countries to raise it during their bilateral meetings — [to urge Beijing] to co-operate,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a conference. “We have already asked in writing to give us information . . . and also [are] willing to send a team if they allow us to do so," he stressed.