HHS Office of Inspector General Admits NIH Failed to "Effectively Monitor" Funds Used for Gain of Function Research in Wuhan

In case you had any doubt that a branch of the United States federal government existing to protect public health was involved (knowingly or unknowingly) in funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, here's a piece of information that will lay your doubt to rest:

Just one week ago, on January 25, 2023, the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services quietly published a report on its website admitting that neither the National Institutes of Health nor EcoHealth Alliance effectively monitored millions of dollars of grant awards and subawards, "resulting in missed opportunities to oversee research and other deficiencies."

The report went on to say that the "OIG initiated this audit because of concerns regarding the National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) grant awards to EcoHealth Alliance (EcoHealth), NIH's monitoring of EcoHealth, and EcoHealth's use of grant funds, including its monitoring of subawards to a foreign entity."

Here are three bombshell findings from the report:

• "Using its discretion," NIH did not refer the research to HHS for an outside review for enhanced potential pandemic pathogens (ePPPs) because it determined the research did not involve and was not reasonably anticipated to create, use, or transfer an ePPP.

• The NIH added a "special term and condition" in EcoHealth's awards and provided LIMITED GUIDANCE on how EcoHealth should comply with that requirement.

• RESEARCH RESULTED IN VIRUS GROWTH THAT MET SPECIFIED BENCHMARKS BASED ON A LATE PROGRESS REPORT FROM ECOHEALTH THAT NIH FAILED TO FOLLOW UP ON UNTIL NEARLY 2 YEARS AFTER ITS DUE DATE.
In other words, the NIH acted as a sovereign entity unto itself, unaccountable to the HHS, and implemented "special terms and conditions" for EcoHealth Alliance to be able to circumnavigate in order to conduct essentially illegal research with dangerous pathogens. The NIH then FAILS TO FOLLOW UP an EcoHealth report until nearly two years after its due date???

The report's conclusion is "that NIH missed opportunities to more effectively monitor research. With improved oversight, NIH may have been able to take more timely corrective actions to mitigate the inherent risks associated with this type of research."

This begs so many questions to be asked. Does the NIH practice incompetence to such a flagrant and unacceptable degree that they UNKNOWINGLY failed to adequately monitor millions of dollars of infectious diseases research sent overseas? Or is the NIH purposely admitting incompetence for the more advantageous and necessary position of distancing themselves from malfeasance?

Never mind that former NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci was adamant in an outburst with U.S. Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., back in 2021 where he insisted, "You are entirely, entirely and completely incorrect that the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute."

Clearly, accounts by public health officials and U.S. federal government agencies are not aligned. And it is the misfortune of the American people to be able to co-opt Marcellus' famous quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet, "Something's Rotten in the State of Denmark" by simply inserting "the United States" in Denmark's place.