On Friday, the latest installment of the “Verdict with Ted Cruz” podcast was uploaded to YouTube. The focus of the episode was on the reopening of the economy, as well as accountability with regard to China. He also revealed that according to the NHS, the U.S. government provided funding to Chinese coronavirus research in Wuhan, and that there were “internal state department wires before this pandemic raising concerns about the security in those labs.”
Senator Cruz first noted that testing, both for COVID-19, as well as for antibodies, is essential, and that the American economy should open carefully and, if needed, in geographic stages.
“We’re imposing massive harms on the economy – 22 million people out of work, millions of small businesses on the verge of bankruptcy, and … this is something I emphasized to the president yesterday, if we keep on this path, there is a real public health consequence to killing the economy,” Cruz stated. “We’re gonna see mental health issues; we’re gonna see depression; we’re gonna see increased rates of suicide; we’re gonna see increased rates of substance abuse, and alcohol abuse, and lives will be lost – and we’ve got to protect lives.”
Cruz them emphasized a critical point:
The objective should be, protect as many lives as possible, and on both sides of the ledger. So be smart, follow medical science, and stop the pandemic, but also don’t kill the economy, and destroy people’s livelihoods, and cause suffering and death on the economic side either.
After speaking about governmental abuses of power and other issues relating to the pandemic, co-host Micahel Knowles of The Daily Wire asked Cruz about the origins of COVID-19:
Over a month ago, you suggested that there was very likely a link between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and this virus that just so coincidentally happened to occur within a couple of miles of that Institute. During that time, the mainstream media said this was crazy, this was a conspiracy theory, there was no evidence of it. Now, we are getting multiple reports all saying that the virus came from the lab…
My question is, did the U.S. government know that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was conducting this sort of dangerous research? And if we did know, why didn’t we stop it?
Cruz replied:
Absolutely, yes. The U.S. government knew, and in fact, when you and I brought this up on March 10th, over a month ago, you’re right, it was treated as tinfoil hat conspiracy theory nut-jobary. Well, it turns out there was, it wasn’t just one, there were two labs within miles of where this outbreak occurred that were studying coronaviruses from bats, and that there were internal state department wires before this pandemic raising concerns about the security in those labs, and that an accidental virus could escape and cause a global pandemic.
Then Cruz offered some vital information:
But I’ll tell you, it’s worse than that. And, let me give you some breaking news right now, which is the U.S. government was funding the Chinese research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Your taxpayer dollars and my taxpayer dollars. And let me give you specifics that we just got today.
Today, in inquiring of the National Institutes of Health, did any of your money go to the Wuhan Institute of Virology? The answer is yes, and here’s what they told us in writing today. They said in fiscal year 2019, the funding for the Wuhan Institute [of] Virology was $76,301. Now, what did it go to? And I’m repeating what NIH has told me in writing … it was part of an overall $3.7 million funding program that went to six years in sites in China, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Myanmar.
Here’s what they were studying. These are NHS words: “The project included studying viral diversity in animal (bats reservoirs), surveying people that live in high-risk communities for evidence of bat coronavirus infection, and conducting laboratory experiments to analyze and predict which newly-discovered viruses pose the greatest threats to human health.”
That’s what the NIH funding was going to – and we followed up and said, okay, that’s what you described as the project in all of these countries. How about at the Wuhan Institute of Virology? What specifically did U.S. taxpayer dollars go to at the Wuhan Institute of Virology?
Here’s what the NIH said in writing: “The project supported the following activities at the Wuhan Institute of Virology: coronavirus screening and serology of non-human samples, viral pathogenesis, serological testing, host receptor binding, spike S protein sequencing, and in vitro and in viva virus characterization.”
The senator continued, making sure to stress that there is no confirmation that COVID-19 came from the Wuhan lab, but that while tax dollars were reportedly going to China to fund research, “the state department was raising real concerns about the safety and security protocols at the lab.”
“Given that they were studying these bat coronaviruses, the Chinese government needs to answer the question right now. Were they studying the novel coronavirus … that has killed over 140,000 people worldwide?” Cruz said, adding that “they won’t answer that question.”
There’s a great deal more to this episode than what’s written here, so check it out below: