Sen. Josh Hawley questioned Dr. Jay Bhattacharya during a Senate hearing about the National Institutes of Health’s past funding of gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, pressing for transparency, accountability, and a comprehensive review of federal grants sent to Chinese laboratories over the past decade.
Hawley framed his questioning around public trust, arguing that repeated denials by NIH leadership about funding links to Wuhan severely damaged confidence in public health institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Question of public trust,” Hawley said.
“You were talking about it earlier, public trust and public health, one of the things that so badly undermined public trust in the NIH in particular… was the work that NIH did and funded at the Wuhan Institute of virology for coronavirus gain of function research.”
Hawley said NIH leaders denied for years that any taxpayer money had gone to Wuhan, only to later admit that funding had, in fact, been routed through EcoHealth Alliance to support gain-of-function research.
“And of course, lied about it for two years or more,” Hawley said.
“NIH denied that there had been any funding whatsoever that had gone to Wuhan, and then ultimately had to admit, after public reporting, that indeed there had been gain of function research with NIH, NIH money through EcoHealth Alliance that had gone to Wuhan.”
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Hawley asked Bhattacharya whether, under his leadership, NIH has conducted a full review of grants and funding streams sent not only to Wuhan but to other laboratories in China.
“My question to you is, this, has the NIH done under your leadership now a thorough review of all of the grants or other funding streams that may have gone not only to Wuhan but to other labs in China,” Hawley said.
“Do we have a handle now on what NIH was doing over the last decade plus in funding?”
Hawley said the issue is critical because the American people were misled and critics who raised concerns were dismissed.
“I say we, I mean the American people were misled and lied to,” Hawley said.
“And those of us who said, Wait a minute, we think there’s a funding stream there. We were called conspiracy theorists, Kooks, crazies. It turns out it was 100% correct.”
Bhattacharya responded by acknowledging the seriousness of the issue while saying his immediate focus has been on preventing future dangerous research and strengthening oversight of foreign collaborations.
“I’ve been focused primarily on making sure that we don’t continually have, or in the future, have, so put in policies to have better oversight of foreign collaborations,” Bhattacharya said.
“I’ve worked very hard on the dangerous gain of function.”
Bhattacharya said NIH paused 40 grants that posed potential risks and implemented policies aimed at preventing similar research from occurring again.
“We paused 40 grants that have some potential risk of dangerous gain of function, and put in policy so that never happens again,” he said.
“Because that’s to me, that’s the most important thing. We can’t ever do it again.”
However, Bhattacharya acknowledged that a full retrospective review of past funding has not yet been completed.
“I’m working on the review. It’s a long, long review,” Bhattacharya said.
“It’s a comp. It’s a long, complicated story that unfortunately, doesn’t just the involve the NIH, it also involves partners, foreign partners, and so I think it’s something that we really should do, but we haven’t. I can’t tell you we completed it at this point.”
Hawley responded by stressing that accountability is essential to restoring public trust and correcting the record.
“Don’t you think that that accountability is important?” Hawley asked.
“I mean, don’t you think to restore public trust is important that we level with the American people that there’s transparency, that we correct the record and say, here’s actually what your government did with your tax money.”
He reiterated that NIH leadership at the time falsely denied funding links to Wuhan.
“That was a lie,” Hawley said.
“That was a lie from the leaders of NIH at the time. I think those lies need to be corrected, and the facts, all of the facts, however sordid and unpleasant they may be for the institution, need to come out.”
Bhattacharya agreed with the need for an honest accounting, comparing it to internal reviews conducted after serious failures in medicine.
“I do agree with that,” Bhattacharya said. “After, after a patient dies in a hospital, there’s often a conference, a morbidity, mortality conference, where there’s just an honest conversation what went wrong. I think the United States desperately needs that.”
Hawley asked whether Bhattacharya would prioritize such an effort if confirmed.
“Will you make that a priority in your time at NIH?” Hawley asked.
Bhattacharya responded, “Happy to collaborate with you and others in Congress to make that happen.”
Hawley concluded by emphasizing the importance of the commitment.
“Good,” Hawley said.
“I think it’s absolutely vital.”
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