Biden Health Department Accused Of Obstructing COVID Pandemic Investigation; GOP Pols Demand Pentagon Probe Into More Than $50M Spent On Chinese Pandemic Research Labs, and other C-Virus related stories
Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.
Biden Health Department Accused Of Obstructing COVID Pandemic Investigation:
The Biden administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is being accused of obstructing a congressional investigation into the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Republican Ohio Rep. Brad Wenstrup, chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, accused the HHS of obstructing the committee’s investigative efforts and scheduled a hearing on the matter.
“HHS has spent the last year intentionally avoiding lawful Congressional oversight. When the Select Subcommittee requested documents, HHS ignored our letters and provided suspect excuses,” Wenstrup said in a statement Friday.
“When we asked for important testimony, HHS seemed to purposefully mislead Select Subcommittee investigators. This pattern of avoiding accountability to the American people can not, and should not, be tolerated any longer. The Department must be held responsible for its parade of delays, excuses, and obfuscation.”
Wenstrup scheduled a hearing Jan. 31 with HHS official Melanie Egorin to address the alleged obstruction by the agency.
The COVID subcommittee subpoenaed the HHS in November to have Egorin appear for a closed-door deposition scheduled Nov. 16. In its subpoena cover letter, the Covid subcommittee expressed frustration at HHS for allegedly producing documents with significant redactions, slow-walking documents requests and withholding documents.—>READ MORE HERE
GOP pols demand Pentagon probe into more than $50M spent on Chinese pandemic research labs:
Sen. Joni Ernst and Rep. Mike Gallagher are demanding the Defense Department’s inspector general probe more than $50 million in defense grants to Chinese pandemic research institutions — including those based in Wuhan, the city where COVID-19 emerged in 2019.
“A comprehensive review of these matters is crucial for identifying potential national security threats that could result either from Pentagon procurement of technology from Chinese companies or dangerous experiments being conducted in foreign laboratories with substandard safety conditions,” Ernst (R-Iowa) and Gallagher (R-Wis.) wrote in a Thursday letter to Pentagon watchdog Robert Storch.
The 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which passed last month, included an amendment from the lawmakers that directed the IG’s office to review Pentagon funding of risky research on pathogens of pandemic potential or “chimeric versions” of viruses in foreign nations over the past decade.
“Tens of millions of Department of Defense dollars have been given to our enemies. This is not just a massive accounting error, but a waste of taxpayer dollars and a threat to our national security,” Gallagher told The Post.
“Our amendment that became law last year requires the Pentagon Inspector General to get to the bottom of this, and it’s time we move with a sense of urgency to fix this problem, protect taxpayer dollars, and ensure not a single cent is funding our adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party.”
The law specifically targets Chinese government-linked research at the now-infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing.
“Due to the lack of accuracy and completeness of federal spending data, only the DOD OIG has the capabilities to conduct these investigations,” the lawmakers told Storch before laying out past attempts to quantify the topline amount.
In May 2023, Ernst’s office announced that a joint investigation with taxpayer watchdog OpenTheBooks found more than $490 million in US funds flowed to Chinese organizations between 2017 and 2022, of which $51.6 million came from the Department of Defense.
But Ernst and Gallagher say “this may be just the tip of the iceberg of the taxpayer dollars from DOD and other government agencies, contractors, and grantees being floated to China.” —>READ MORE HERE
Follow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
Infectious Life of COVID-19 on Surfaces and Fabrics
How The COVID Virus Defends Itself From The Human Immune System
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
Comments are closed.