Explained: Was US double-billed for Wuhan research... and Fauci's definition of a lab leak

A former federal investigator probing US government grants for high-risk research in China has found that the US government possibly made double payments for projects at the Wuhan lab in China. The duplicate payments were made through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), CBS News reported. Diane Cutler, who was hired by Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, reviewed over 50,000 documents before reaching the conclusion.

"What I've found so far is evidence that points to double billing, potential theft of government funds. It is concerning, especially since it involves dangerous pathogens and risky research," Diane said.

Marshall took Diane's report to USAID and the internal watchdog at USAID, leading to a new probe into the matter. Diane says that the US government may have made duplicate payments for things like medical supplies, equipment, travel and salaries. The money could add up to tens of millions of dollars, CBS reported.

A USAID inspector general spokesperson refused to confirm that an investigation into the double billing was currently on. However, the investigation into duplicate billing might take up to six months.

Marshall said the shocking results raise serious concerns for everyone, including the American taxpayers. "I think there are 1.1 million reasons that American taxpayers should care," he said.

Did COVID-19 leak from the Wuhan lab?

The COVID-19 lab leak theory has been grabbing attention once again ever since fresh reports about its origins started coming out in the past few weeks. First, a report by the US energy department claiming that the COVID-19 virus emerged from a lab leak was presented to the US lawmakers and the White House.

Then Christopher Wray, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, acknowledged that COVID-19 "most likely" originated in a "Chinese government-controlled lab". It was the first public confirmation of the FBI's classified judgement of how the pandemic virus emerged. Wray told Fox News that “the FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan.”

Earlier this month, US lawmakers in the House of Representatives voted unanimously for the declassification of US intelligence about the origins of COVID-19.

Later, the former head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that he was sidelined from all investigations and meetings regarding the origins of the virus since his views were not in line with those of other scientists. Dr Robert Redfield said he suspected a lab leak as the most plausible reason, for which other scientists started keeping him out of all meetings.

Dr Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, denied Redfield's allegations. Dr Redfield told a US congressional committee hearing that during several calls with Fauci, WHO chief scientist Jeremy Farrar, and WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, he “expressed as a clinical virologist that I felt it was not scientifically plausible that this virus went from a bat to humans and became one of the most infectious viruses that we have in humans.”

Fauci tries to tie lab leak to a natural occurrence

Now that the lab leak theory refuses to die down, Fauci also seems to be making a case for himself and the theory while trying to keep his views intact. Earlier this week, Fauci came up with a different definition of a lab leak, tying it to a natural occurrence.

"A lab leak could be that someone was out in the wild may be looking for different types of viruses in bats, got infected, went into a lab, was being studied in a lab, and then came out of the lab. But if that's the definition of lab leak, then that's still a natural occurrence," Fauci said.

Fauci also came up with an alternate definition for the same.

"The other possibility is someone takes a virus from the environment that doesn't actually spread very well in humans, and manipulates it a bit, and accidentally it escapes or accidentally infects someone and then you get an outbreak."

Differences over COVID-19 origins

The US government hasn't been united over what led to the origin of COVID-19. A 2021 report issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence revealed that the National Intelligence Council, along with four other unidentified agencies, in a low-confidence assessment believed that the initial COVID-19 infection “was most likely caused by natural exposure to an animal infected with it or a close progenitor virus.”

So now when several groups have started to back the lab leak theory, things have started to get murkier for top officials involved in the probe. The probe into COVID-19 origins isn't expected to end any time soon and more revelations, such as the double billing, are likely to keep emerging.

But, we might have to make peace with the fact that the actual origins of the coronavirus might never be revealed.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE