For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been totally geeking out on and fangirling @DataRepublican on X. She developed a searchable database of federal grants linked to recipient institutions. Using that, she, and now hundreds if not thousands of others, have broken open truth about how much federal grant funding actually gets to the claimed ultimate beneficiaries. When I was noodling around in the database to see about funding to prevent or treat dangerous viruses, I saw something that, as written, set off warning bells. I’d love to learn that I’m wrong.
DataRepublican is bringing about the transparency President Trump promised during his campaign. The churn and skim of money flowing from the guv to NGO, and then through NGO to NGO, all of which allows each of these organizations to take administrative costs off the top, has been revealed. USAID is under intense scrutiny. Soon, other agencies will be. Now all the walls are made of glass.
I logged into her application, which she offers free to all, and decided to look up an old enemy—Ebola—to see what might be happening there. (I was in West Africa during one of this century’s outbreaks.) Curiously, a $2,266,918 grant to Colorado State University popped up. The grant establishes a “bat resource for infectious disease research”:
Bats are reservoirs, or suspected reservoirs, of many zoonotic viruses, including SARS, SARS2 and MERS coronaviruses, Nipah and Hendra viruses, and Ebola and Marburg viruses. Little is known about how these viruses circulate in their bat reservoirs, principally because of a lack of bat colonies that can be used for the development of experimental infection models. To address this deficiency, we will capture horseshoe bats and Indian flying foxes, respective reservoir hosts of Nipah virus and SARS-related coronaviruses, in Bangladesh where they will be quarantined and provided veterinary care as they adapt to captivity.
BMBL) handbook, now in its 6th edition. The handbook “provides best practices for the safe conduct of work in biomedical and clinical laboratories.”
My familiarity with the handbook arose when some of our researchers wanted to go after Lassa Fever. Because Lassa was locally present, any research done by our staff would have been cutting edge. The BMBL recommends Lassa be handled in BSL-4 containment (think the moon-suited lab space in the movie Contagion). However, our labs only went to BSL-3, so the answer, in the face of fierce opposition, was a firm “no.” This was not a one-time experience with USG-funded scientists. I understood both their drive and their disappointment.
Nipah is worse. While most of us have heard of the Ebola and Marburg viruses, few of us know about the Nipah virus. However, the BMBL notes that 40% of the known Nipah Virus infections during various outbreaks have been fatal. It states,
BSL-4 is required for all work with these viruses. Once a diagnosis of Nipah or Hendra virus is suspected, all diagnostic specimens also must be handled at BSL-4. ABSL-4 (Animal BSL) is required for any work with infected animals.
There are very few BSL-4 facilities in the United States.
Colorado State University has a robust and well-respected College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences through post-graduate levels, offering PhDs in Microbiology, Pathology, Clinical Sciences, and Biomedical Sciences. Its Infections Disease Research Center complex supports academic, government, private, and commercial biomedical research.
In 2020, CSU opened the Center for Vector-Borne Diseases, a BSL-3 rated, 41,000 sf facility of labs, offices, and insect-growing spaces. The Center includes a colony of Jamaican fruit bats for use in influenza, corona, and paramyxovirus studies. CSU also houses NIH’s NIAID-supported Rocky Mountain Regional Biocontainment Laboratory.
In 2021, NIH’s Office of the Director granted CSU $6,748,541 to build a Bat Resource Center for the Study of Zoonotic Diseases at Colorado State University. (Zoonotic diseases are those that spread between animals and people.) The project should just be complete, although the funding runs through May 2026. According to a report in The Colorado Sun, the facility is rated for conducting Biosafety Level 2 (BSL-2) research which “could involve microbes that pose ‘moderate hazards,’ are not foreign, and are associated with diseases of ‘varying severity’ such as staphylococcus.”
The $2.2+ million bat resource grant was awarded in September 2024 by NIH’s NIAID when CSU was already facing controversy regarding the new facility that would house this resource. In May 2024, White Coat Waste, a watchdog organization, reported that CSU had a troubling history of lab accidents in its animal research facilities. It also reported that CSU would be partnering with EcoHealth Alliance (of Wuhan Institute of Virology fame) on their planned bat research.
In 2024, HHS debarred and suspended federal funding for EcoHealth Alliance, so that partnership is no more.
CSU has published a fact sheet regarding its bat facility. It states, in relevant part that “The building will meet BSL-2 biosafety requirements.” It also says that “CSU does not work with viruses that require the highest level of laboratory containment, such as Ebola, Marburg or Nipah viruses, that require the use of a BSL-4 laboratory.”
To summarize thus far, CSU has a bat facility that is built to BSL-2 biosafety requirements. It’s assured the public that it will not be working with Ebola, Marburg or Nipah viruses, all of which require BSL-4 safety requirements. Finally, the research into bats from Bangladesh sounds as if it could generate some useful information.
So, what’s the issue?
It’s that language I mentioned above when I described the grant itself: “we will perform experimental infection studies of Nipah Virus” and “sera from naïve and infected bats will be archived in a biobank.”
This leads to an important question: Will CSU limit that research to activities, animals, and research artifacts that are suitable for its BSL-2 and BSL-3 rated facilities? The grant language suggests more, so I’m asking for someone, please, to tell me I’ve read this grant description wrong.
Anony Mee is the nom de blog of a retired public servant who X-tweets at oh_yeahMee.
Image: BSL-4 Biohazard suit. Public domain.
Jesus Christ is King
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