Federal health officials this week suspended funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese lab at the center of investigations about the novel coronavirus's origins, saying the move was "necessary to mitigate any potential public health risk" given insufficient information about the lab's research.
The lab's failure to turn over key documents about its work on coronaviruses "constitutes adequate evidence to demonstrate that the immediate suspension of [the Wuhan Institute of Virology] is necessary to protect the public interest," according to a Department of Health and Human Services memo obtained by the House panel reviewing the government's coronavirus response and made public Tuesday. The institute, which received the memo and an accompanying letter that recommended its debarment Monday, has 30 days to respond. Suspended and debarred organizations are ineligible to receive new federal contracts and grants and other types of funding from the United States.