60 Minutes uncovers another Trump lie.

From 60 Minutes:


Trump administration cuts funding for coronavirus researcher, jeopardizing possible COVID-19 cure 


An American scientist who collaborates with the Wuhan Institute of Virology had his grant terminated in the wake of unsubstantiated claims that COVID-19 is either manmade or leaked out of a Chinese government lab.



"Peter Daszak in 2003 interview: 'What worries me the most is that we are going to miss the next emerging disease, that we're suddenly going to find a SARS virus that moves from one part of the planet to another, wiping out people as it moves along.' 

In the 17 years since that prophecy, Peter Daszak became president of the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance. 

 Peter Daszak: 'We're a nonprofit research organization that focuses on understanding where the pandemics come from, what's the risk of future pandemics and can we get in between this pandemic and the next one and disrupt it and stop it.' 

 In China, EcoHealth has worked for 15 years with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Together they've catalogued hundreds of bat viruses, research that is critical right now. 

 Peter Daszak: 'The breakthrough drug, Remdesivir, that seems to have some impact on COVID-19 was actually tested against the viruses we discovered under our NIH research funding.' 

 Scott Pelley: 'And so that testing would not have been possible-- 

 Peter Daszak: No, it would not. 

 Scott Pelley: --if it hadn't been for the work that you did with the NIH grant? 

Peter Daszak: Correct. 

 But his funding from the NIH, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, was killed, two weeks ago, by a political disinformation campaign targeting China's Wuhan Institute. 

 On April 14, Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz claimed China's Wuhan Institute had, quote, "birthed a monster." Gaetz is a vigorous defender of the president. He's been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for allegedly threatening a witness against Mr. Trump and he led a protest to delay impeachment testimony. 

 Matt Gaetz on "Tucker Carlson Tonight": The NIH gives this $3.7 million grant to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, they then advertise that they need coronavirus researchers. Following that, coronavirus erupts in Wuhan. 

 There never was a $3.7 million U.S. grant to the Wuhan lab. 

But, the falsehood spread like a virus, in the White House, and without verification, in the briefing room. 

 Reporter in White House press briefing: There's also another report that the NIH, under the Obama administration, in 2015 gave that lab $3.7 million in a grant. Why would the U.S. give a grant like that to China? 

 President Trump: The Obama administration gave them a grant of $3.7 million? I've been hearing about that. And we've instructed that if any grants are going to that area – we're looking at it, literally, about an hour ago, and also early in the morning. We will end that grant very quickly. 

 That grant was to Peter Daszak's U.S.-based EcoHealth Alliance for disease prevention it does throughout the world. His work was considered so important that, last year, the grant was reauthorized and increased by the Trump administration. 

 [skip] 

 The Wuhan Institute is internationally respected. Two years ago, a team from the U.S. Embassy visited. That team sent a cable to Washington, concerned that one lab in the complex had a serious shortage of trained investigators. But the cable, first reported by the Washington Post, emphasized the Wuhan Institute is "critical to future… outbreak prediction and prevention." 

EcoHealth's work with Wuhan ended one week after Mr. Trump's briefing room pledge, when the NIH revoked the grant.

 Scott Pelley: They gave you no reason? 

 Peter Daszak: They said it was canceled for convenience and it doesn't fit within the scope of NIH's priorities right now. 

Scott Pelley: And yet it was a high priority when the grant was reissued in 2019? 

 Peter Daszak: Yeah it's definitely puzzling. I mean, this grant received an incredibly high-priority score. It was in the top 3% of grants they reviewed. And that's unusual.