NIH tells Congress of a “limited experiment” in Wuhan in which modified viruses made mice sicker
In a letter to Representative James Comer, NIH Principal Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak wrote that the EcoHealth Alliance grant's Wuhan work included a limited experiment with bat coronavirus spike proteins in mice, that mice infected with one modified virus became sicker than those with the original, and that EcoHealth had failed to report this as its grant required.
The letter also says the viruses studied were genetically distant from SARS-CoV-2 and could not have become it. Both parts are in the letter; read it whole.
Sources
- Letter from Lawrence A. Tabak, NIH, to Rep. James Comer, October 20, 2021 (copy published by The Wall Street Journal)primary source
sha256:ca6c71ef5fdfbdce… fetched 2026-10-11 - The same letter on DocumentCloudprimary source
- House Committee on Oversight, October 27, 2021: letter to the Attorney General regarding EcoHealth Allianceprimary source