Less than two years before the COVID-19 pandemic began, scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology planned to genetically alter viruses to make the

Wuhan Lab Wanted to Genetically Enhance Bat Viruses to Study Human Risks, Documents Show

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2021-09-23 02:30:02

Less than two years before the COVID-19 pandemic began, scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology planned to genetically alter viruses to make them more infectious for humans and release them into bat caves.

The research proposal was part of a trove of documents released this week by a group of scientists and activists who are trying to determine the origins of the pandemic, which has killed 4.7 million people around the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The Wuhan scientists were listed as partners on a funding proposal the environmental health nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance made to the U.S. government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

DARPA rejected the proposal and it is not clear what happened to the research project, which the documents described as having "a good running start"

The proposal promises to fuel the controversy around the Wuhan lab's role in the pandemic. The Chinese government maintains that the outbreak began at a wet market and bristles at suggestions that experiments conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology led to a leak of dangerous pathogens.