U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) called on Congress to end U.S. taxpayer funding of both China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) laboratory and the country’s unregulated wet markets.
Sen. Ernst and several colleagues expressed concerns over past federal funding to the Chinese state-run WIV laboratory, which is China’s only facility designated as a biosafety Level 4 laboratory, meaning that it handles extremely deadly pathogens and biological agents, according to an April 21 bipartisan, bicameral letter the lawmakers sent to congressional leaders.
“We are writing to urge you to ensure that no stimulus funding is sent — directly or indirectly — to China’s controversial bio-agent laboratory,” Sen. Ernst and the 53 other lawmakers wrote. “We were troubled by recent media reports that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been funding secretive and dangerous laboratory research at the WIV for many years. According to the NIH’s website, the WIV is currently authorized by the NIH to receive taxpayer funding for animal research.”
Sen. Ernst and her colleagues said that no U.S. taxpayer dollars should fund the WIV, which “lacks any meaningful oversight from U.S. authorities and is run by adversaries with a history of lab leaks, including SARS, and deception about the causes and extent of deadly disease outbreaks, including COVID-19.”
Sen. Ernst also joined U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Mike Braun (R-IN), and Joe Manchin (D-WV) to introduce a bipartisan bill that would ban government purchases of animals from unregulated wet marketplaces in China.
Wet markets, according to the independent and nonprofit World Economic Forum, are comparable to European farmers’ markets in that they stock everything from fruit and vegetables to fresh meat and seafood to herbs and spices, all on open-air display. The markets are called “wet” to differentiate them from markets selling “dry” packaged goods such as noodles, the forum says.
“While previous administrations should have been working to shut down these dangerous, disease-prone markets, they were subsidizing them with taxpayer money,” said Sen. Ernst. “That’s why I’m working across the aisle to prevent any more American tax dollars from going to China’s unregulated ‘supermarkets of sickness.’ Whether it’s the lab in Wuhan or these repulsive wet markets, Iowans shouldn’t be footing the bill for either.”
Sen. Ernst also joined several colleagues in writing an April 14 letter sent to the World Health Organization (WHO) seeking information on the WHO’s role in reportedly helping the Chinese Communist Party cover up information related to the spread of COVID-19.
“The folks around the world who have lost loved ones to #COVID19 deserve answers,” she tweeted on April 14. “The @WHO needs to be held accountable for its role in helping Communist China cover up this pandemic. I joined @SenRickScott & my colleagues to request info on the WHO’s failed and delayed response.”