Dr Anthony Fauci revealed he is 'not convinced' that COVID-19 developed naturally and called for an open investigation into its origins as China faces mounting pressure to provide transparency on the issue. 'Will you in front of this group categorically say that the COVID-19 virus could not have occurred by serial passage in a laboratory?' The project involved collaborating with researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study coronaviruses in bats and the risk of potential transfer to humans. In the second grant approved in 2019, about $76,000 was budgeted for the Wuhan Institute, though no money was sent before the grant's termination. But again, we have not funded gain of function research on this virus in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
