https://www.newsweek.com/wuhan-lab-wanted-genetically-enhance-bat-viruses-study-human-risks-documents-show-1631784Some of the new information out of Wuhan shows that the WIV had programs in the works with gain of function research on coronaviruses that would first genetically enhance the transmissibility of the viruses, then
release them into natural bat caves to study the effects- rather than studying the bats in sealed laboratory settings. This appears to be from a leaked grant proposal, so its unlikely this specific program was actually carried out- at least, using DARPA funds. It could have been still carried out without western funding or knowledge.
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In its funding request, EcoHealth Alliance "proposed injecting deadly chimeric bat coronaviruses collected by the Wuhan Institute of Virology into humanised and 'batified' mice," DRASTIC Research said
A copy of EcoHealth Alliance's proposal shared by DRASTIC Research said the proposed project aimed to "defuse the potential for spillover of novel bat-origin high-zoonotic risk SARS-related coronaviruses in Asia." The proposal's executive summary said researchers would "intensively sample bats" in field locations where scientists "identified high spillover risk" for coronaviruses.
EcoHealth Alliance wrote in the document shared by DRASTIC Research that it planned to work with researchers at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, the University of North Carolina, the Palo Alto Research Center in California, U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center and the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China. It requested $14 million from DARPA to conduct its research, which was estimated to take three and a half years.
The proposal was dated March 2018, less than two years before SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, began spreading around the world. The virus is believed to have begun spreading among humans in Wuhan, where the first wave of infections was reported.