Most of the media were too busy covering the phony Russia-gate story to notice how China has been directly involved in controversial coronavirus research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Since the media ignored the threat, they are now charging President Trump with ignoring the threat and peddling “conspiracy theories” about it. This is how the fake news media deceive the American people on a matter of life and death.

Evidence shows that the Trump Administration for at least two years has been urging the FBI and the NIH to crack down on Chinese exploitation and theft of sensitive U.S. Government research.

A Harvard biochemist who claimed backing from the NIH has already been charged in a scheme to benefit China.

True to form, our media have treated news of a suspension of NIH funds to the EcoHealth Alliance, an American group working with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, as a “conspiracy theory” led by President Trump. Since news about the suspension of funds was leaked to Matthew Boyle of Breitbart News, a series of stories alleging this is all a “conspiracy theory” involving Trump have appeared in the following left-wing publications: Politico, New York Magazine, Business Insider, Talking Points Memo,  and Raw Story.

This is how reporters justify (to themselves) ignoring the scandal that was developing right under their noses. They would rather run interference for the Chinese regime than inform the American people about controversial research that may have spawned the Chinese release of the coronavirus.

In the middle of this scandal is NIH director Dr. Francis Collins, an Obama holdover who publicly affirms his Christian faith but has a long history of collaborating with the communist Chinese regime.

This is what the media really fear – disclosure of evidence that the Chinese conducted dangerous virus experiments with the help of the Obama Administration.

Here’s the background: Collins had served as an advisor on healthcare to Barack Hussein Obama during his 2008 campaign and on his transition team. After he was appointed by Obama as NIH Director in 2009, he began the process of deep cooperation with China, This led to the  U.S.-China Program for Biomedical Research, which provided financial awards for U.S. and Chinese “collaborating investigators” and sent millions of dollars through the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), whose director is Dr. Anthony S. Fauci.

Collins appears in a 2010 report that includes a photograph with Professor Chen Yiyu, President of the National Science Foundation of China, signing a memorandum of understanding for joint medical research involving diseases “severely threatening mankind’s lives.” Another story and photo showed Collins exchanging gifts with Chinese Minister of Health Chen Zhu during a visit to Beijing, saying they worked “to strengthen the already robust research collaborations between the two countries” and “promote innovation and strategic medical research.”

On October 14, 2010, Collins and a delegation paid a visit to Peking University (PKU) Health Science Center, as a story indicates that the participants expressed hope for “a more extensive partnership on scientific research, academic exchange, and personnel training in future…”

Collins had been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Science for leading the Human Genome Project, whose purpose was to understand DNA in order to fight disease. That veered out of control when the Chinese component spawned genetically-engineered babies.

His continued directorship of the NIH came into doubt after Donald J. Trump was elected president. Pro-life groups such as the Charlotte Lozier Institute attacked Collins for his “support of human embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, and the creation of ethically-questionable human-animal chimeras.” More than 40 conservative Republicans wrote to the president in May 2017 urging him to fire Collins because of his support for human embryonic stem cell research.

Nevertheless, Collins was retained as NIH Director at the urging of Senator Roy Blunt and other “moderate” GOP members of the Senate and House. That was a big mistake. Collins’ ongoing relationship with the Chinese medical and scientific establishment finally got him into trouble in 2019 when Blunt arranged an April 11 Senate hearing on oversight of the NIH budget.

At the hearing, Blunt described a Chinese government program to recruit National Institutes of Health-funded researchers, in order to “steal intellectual property” and “establish shadow laboratories in China,” and to “help the Chinese government obtain confidential information about NIH research grants.” He referred to how China’s Thousand Talents Plan (TTP), a program controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, was threatening “the integrity of the NIH system.”

Meanwhile, a subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on November 19, 2019. Senator Rob Portman revealed the problem was so serious that “…we learned that Thousand Talents Plan members worked at National Labs on sensitive research and maintained security clearances.”

In fact, the Senate subcommittee released a report, Threats to the U.S. Research Enterprise: China’s Talent Recruitment Plans, which said, “NIH has attempted to address the threats presented by foreign talent recruitment plans like the TTP, but significant gaps in grant integrity efforts remain unaddressed. These gaps have made it difficult for NIH to engage in proactive efforts to prevent foreign exploitation of U.S.-funded research.”

On January 20, 2020, as the coronavirus was spreading inside the United States, the Department of Justice announced that a Harvard University professor and two Chinese nationals had been charged with crimes in several “China-related cases.” Dr. Charles Lieber, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, was described as a contractual participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan between 2012 and 2017. But the complaint says Lieber lied to federal investigators about his involvement with the Thousand Talents Plan.

Lieber’s “sponsors,” as identified on his web site, include the National Institutes of Health, the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, and MITRE, a think tank.

As the Trump administration was trying to get Collins to pay more attention to the problem, he acknowledged under questioning by Senator Blunt at the April 2019 Senate hearing that there were “egregious instances where our funding of grants in this country is being taken advantage of by individuals who are not following the appropriate rules.” He said the FBI was investigating “vigorously” and that some of the information about the problem was classified.

Collins told Blunt that investigations of NIH-funded foreign scientists were ongoing at more than 55 U.S. institutions. (see the  video of the hearing and the Collins testimony at the 40 minute and 59 seconds mark). In a letter, he said, “This kind of inappropriate influence is not limited to biomedical research; it has been a significant issue for defense and energy research for some time.”

It looks like a classic case of Americans supplying the rope the communists needed to hang us. Whether it was released accidentally or intentionally, the rope, in this case, was a virus that destroyed millions of lives and our economy.

President Trump is not a doctor and has never claimed to be one. He defers to the doctors and scientists. But has that been a mistake? It turns out that one of the country’s most prominent medical and scientific organizations, the federally-funded National Institutes of Health (NIH), has been funding investigations in China’s most controversial and insecure lab of dangerous viruses in China.

This scandal is far more serious than the president’s personal opinions about the use of sunlight and disinfectants to fight coronavirus.

Presumably, the money was for the purpose of understanding dangerous viruses and stopping their spread. But something went horribly wrong. The bodies are piling up all around us and the U.S. has entered an economic depression as a result.

This story is unfolding as Trump is reportedly contemplating ending his daily White House briefings because of the hostile treatment he receives from the press. That’s an understandable reaction. But the briefings have been helpful. Consider that on April 17, at one of those briefings, Trump was asked about a federal grant to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2015, the lab linked to the controversial virus and animal experiments. The question was posed by Emerald Robinson, the White House Correspondent for Newsmax TV. “When did you hear the grant was made?” Trump responded, after confirming the grant. “2015? Who was president then? I wonder.” He said the Trump administration would cut off the money.

My own digging led to a 2013 grant for the study of “infectious diseases” in China provided by the NIH and National Science Foundation. Dr. Zhengli Shi, Director of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, was an investigator. This is the famous “batwoman” who denies her lab was the source of the coronavirus.

A reporter with good sources who has been critical of China, Josh Rogin of the Washington Post disclosed State Department cables in 2018 that warned of safety issues at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and “a risk of a new SARS-like pandemic.” Rogin added, “The Chinese researchers at WIV were receiving assistance from the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch and other U.S. organizations, but the Chinese requested additional help. The cables argued that the United States should give the Wuhan lab further support, mainly because its research on bat coronaviruses was important but also dangerous.”

The ”other organizations” appear to be a reference to the international “partners” of the WIV listed on the Chinese organization’s own website: the University of Alabama, University of North Texas, EcoHealth Alliance, Harvard University, and the National Institutes of Health.

The question of “further support” for the controversial Chinese lab was presented in terms of concern by the State Department or U.S. embassy officials. But why was the support provided in the first place? It is entirely possible, even probable, that American expertise made it possible for the Chinese to run their dangerous disease research. After all, the Chinese are known for stealing intellectual property.

The key question all along is one that should be directed to NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins: Why was the NIH underwriting Chinese research into dangerous viruses, knowing about the risks and dangers?

Understanding that this matter is political dynamite which could backfire on Joe Biden or any other Democratic Party presidential nominee, a left-wing so-called “fact-checking” website, Snopes, examined the issue and confirmed that a grant was made through a U.S.-based organization, the EcoHealth Alliance and that the funds came from the NIH. Snopes added, “While a portion of these grants funded research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), this lab did not receive all $3.7 million.”

The scandal, of course, is why tax dollars were flowing into the WIV in the first place and without adequate oversight.

The NIH money was provided to the WIV apparently because Dr. Collins and others thought China would cooperate with the U.S. in stopping such threats. But China and its front, the World Health Organization, initially covered-up the spread of the coronavirus. What’s more, China let residents of Wuhan travel around the world, including the United States, spreading the disease.

Snopes’ well-known left-wing bias helps us understand why it gave the media reports about the $3.7 million in grants a “mixture” rating of truth and falsity, rather than declare the main charge absolutely true and give Trump credit for responding in the way he did. It wants to get the Obama/Biden administration off the hook for complicity in a scandal involving scientific and medical research that may have led to sickening and killing millions of people. It doesn’t want to justify the Trump Administration’s anti-China stance and cut-off of $400 million annually to the WHO.

Trump doesn’t get off the hook completely. He bowed to Collins’ supporters in Congress, including Democrats and some top Republicans, and kept him in the NIH post. Collins is an Obama holdover (since 2009) who was so cozy with the Chinese that, during a 2010 trip to China, he signed scientific agreements with them and also played a song for them on the guitar. The bizarre spectacle was captured in the story, “Music and science strengthen US-China relations.”

One could argue that the communists played Collins like a violin.

Although Congressional investigations are needed, the basic facts are already clear: American tax dollars and expertise were provided under the cover of U.S.-China “cooperation” and could have made the virus and its release possible. The NIH and Director Collins have a lot to explain and answer for.