The U.S. government may have paid twice for laboratory research in Wuhan, China, before the outbreak of COVID according to an initial report by CBS News.
The double payments occurred regarding grants that supported research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Senator Roger Marshall, R-Kan., commissioned the investigation, led by former investigator Diane Cutler, and took the results to the United States Agency for International Development, which launched a new independent investigation.
"What I've found so far is evidence that points to double billing, potential theft of government funds. It is concerning, especially since it involves dangerous pathogens and risky research," Cutler told CBS after reviewing upwards of 50,000 documents.
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"I think there's 1.1 million reasons that American taxpayers should care," Marshall told CBS. "You'll have a plane crashes. We want to find out why the plane crashes. We go to any lengths to do that. And the hope is we don't have another plane crash for the same reason."
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In February, FBI Director Christopher Wray stated the agency believes the origins of the pandemic is "most likely" a laboratory leak while the Department of Energy says it has "low confidence" in the idea. The theory originally stems from the fact that the Wuhan Institute of Virology conducted viral research in the city where the SARS-CoV-2 virus first emerged.
"The news that the federal government may have made duplicate payments to labs in Wuhan is deeply troubling. We need transparency on the use of these taxpayer dollars, especially since it appears these funds went toward risky research," Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., told Fox News Digital. "As a member of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, I am fighting for transparency on how taxpayer dollars were used in Wuhan and the role that it played in the COVID-19 pandemic."
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