NIH Ends Secretive Pass-Through Funding to Foreign Labs, Which Previously Funded the Wuhan Lab and Fauci’s Beagle Experiments

The National Institutes of Health has banned U.S. scientists from directing federal funds to international research partners.

This secretive practice has previously allowed the funding of the Wuhan animal lab, paid for Dr. Anthony Fauci’s cruel beagle experiments in Tunisia, and funded Russia’s cruel kitten treadmill tests.

The decision addresses long-standing transparency issues with foreign funding for taxpayer-funded research projects.

According to a notice by the NIH, some recipients have failed to accurately report subawards of $30,000 or more, as required by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA). This lack of transparency, particularly with foreign subawards, has raised national security concerns for the U.S. government. To rectify this, NIH is establishing a new award structure prohibiting foreign subawards from being nested under parent grants, effective for all new, renewal, and non-competing continuation grants issued to domestic and foreign entities.

“NIH recognizes that some recipients do not accurately report on subawards consistent with Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) subaward reporting requirements (NIH GPS 8.4.1.5.5), which state that recipients must report on all subawards/subcontracts/consortiums equal to or greater than $30,000,” the agency said. “This includes awards that are initially below $30,000 but subsequent grant modifications result in an award equal to or greater than $30,000. This lack of transparency is particularly concerning in the case of foreign subawards, in which the United States government has a need to maintain national security.”

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who has been critical of previous NIH spending practices, emphasized the need for accountability in a statement about the change.

“By creating a more unified view of where NIH dollars are going, we are strengthening public trust and improving accountability to recipients of federal dollars,” Bhattacharya said.

The decision follows years of investigations by the White Coat Waste Project (WCW), a watchdog organization that has worked to expose taxpayer funding of controversial animal testing domestically and in projects linked to foreign labs.

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