(DCWatchdog.com) – Three Chinese researchers, Ben Hu, Yu Ping, and Yan Zhu, who were working on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology funded by Dr. Anthony Fauci’s NIH at the time, reportedly fell sick with an unknown disease in November 2019. This information is crucial because it pre-dates the first COVID-19 case that Chinese officials claimed was identified on December 8, 2019.
Just before falling ill, Ping had authored a report on bat coronaviruses, according to US intelligence sources reported by The Wall Street Journal and quoted by Fox News. The three researchers, despite their illnesses, all survived.
The Wall Street Journal cites the White Coat Waste Project, a conservative nonprofit organization. This group found that several of Ben Hu’s research projects received funding from the US government.
This information came to light after a court fight led to the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) releasing it under the Freedom of Information Act. It showed that the lab in Wuhan, China, received $1.4 million from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) between 2014 and 2019.
Fox News noted that these new revelations might give more credibility to the idea that the COVID-19 pandemic started with a lab leak rather than originating from a wild animal market in Wuhan.
Hu’s research, supported by US funds, included a study on “animal viruses that could jump to humans and cause a pandemic” and another project on bat coronaviruses.
The Daily Mail noted that Hu is a prominent student of Shi Zhengli, a well-known Chinese virologist, also known as the “Bat Woman.” Zhengli has spent years in bat caves, collecting samples from coronaviruses.
The Wall Street Journal report also included a statement from Robert Kadlec, a former US Department of Health official. Kadlec suggested that Hu and his fellow researchers might be linked to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said, “[Hu and the other two scientists] published on SARS-related coronavirus experiments done at inappropriately low biosafety settings that could have resulted in a laboratory infection.”
Finally, a recent article by three investigative reporters on Substack pointed out that Ben Hu, Yu Ping, and Yan Zhu were among the first to contract COVID-19. These journalists argue that this fact “strengthens the case that the SARS-CoV-2 virus accidentally escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
Ben Hu, patient zero, the first person in the world to become infected with COVID-19 worked at the Wuhan Institute for Virology and Tony Fauci’s NIH paid for this dangerous gain of function research.
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 20, 2023
