| Title | White House Ordered NIH to Cancel Coronavirus Research Funding, Fauci Says | |
| Date | Friday June 26 2020, @04:44PM | |
| Author | Fnord666 | |
| Topic | ||
| from the dept. | ||
White House ordered NIH to cancel coronavirus research funding, Fauci says:
The National Institutes of Health abruptly cut off funding to a long-standing, well-regarded research project on bat coronaviruses only after the White House specifically told it to do so, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Fauci made the revelation Tuesday at a Congressional hearing on the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is caused by a coronavirus that is genetically linked to those found in bats. Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas) asked Fauci why the NIH abruptly canceled funding for the project, which specifically worked to understand the risk of bat coronaviruses jumping to humans and causing devastating disease.
Fauci responded to Veasey saying: "It was cancelled because the NIH was told to cancel it."
"And why were they told to cancel it?" Veasey pressed.
"I don't know the reason, but we were told to cancel it," Fauci said.
After the hearing, Fauci clarified to Politico that it was the White House that told the NIH to cancel the funding. An unnamed White House official told Politico that the White House did encourage the funding cut, but ultimately it was the Department of Health and Human Services—of which the NIH is a part—that made the final decision. An HHS spokesperson said only that the funding was cut because "the grantee was not in compliance with NIH's grant policy."
In an emailed statement to Ars Wednesday, the NIH did not respond to questions about the cancellation, saying only that "NIH does not discuss internal deliberations on grant terminations."
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printed from SoylentNews, White House Ordered NIH to Cancel Coronavirus Research Funding, Fauci Says on 2024-04-25 18:59:27