Watchdog knocks NIH oversight of alliance that oversaw funds to Wuhan lab

A federal watchdog agency for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says in a report released this week that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) failed to carry out sufficient oversight into research conducted using millions in federal funds, including research carried out at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been aggressively scrutinized amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for HHS said in its report that the NIH did not make enough of an effort to ensure that requirements tied to federal grant awards were complied with, despite the potential risks that were known and the monitoring procedures that were developed.

The report focused on the awards that were distributed through the EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit non-governmental organization dedicated to protecting wildlife and public health from emerging diseases. The OIG looked into three NIH grants awarded to EcoHealth totaling about $8 million, which in turn were awarded to several recipients, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology.