The US government has scraped funding for the controversial Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has long been scrutinized as the possible origin of COVID-19, after the facility didn’t fork over documents about safety and security, according to a report.
President Biden’s White House took the action Monday, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg News.
The Department of Health and Human Services informed the Wuhan lab of its determination and is looking to completely stop any future funds from going to the lab, the memo indicates.
After a review that started in September, the agency found the lab is not compliant with federal regulations.
“This action will ensure that [Wuhan Institute of Virology] does not receive another dollar of federal funding,” an HHS spokesperson told the outlet.
The funding decision comes as the US and China continue to be at odds over the communist regime’s lack of transparency tied to the origin of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
Two federal agencies, including the FBI, believe the start of COVID was the result of a lab leak while five others have asserted the virus spread to humans as a result of natural transmission from an infected animal.
The CIA and other agencies have not sided one way or another.
The deadly virus has killed 7 million people across the globe.
The US spokesperson told Bloomberg Monday the Wuhan lab has not responded to federal officials yet since the US decided to cut future funding that would include new contracts, grants and other transactions.
The Wuhan Institute has not received a penny from the National Institutes of Health since 2020, Bloomberg noted.
