Joe Rogan on covid: what the evidence says · JRE #1999

What the evidence says 01 / RECORD

NIH awarded EcoHealth Alliance a grant (about $3.7 million over six years) to study bat coronavirus spillover risk, and EcoHealth subcontracted roughly $600,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for collaborative work, including experiments that combined genetic elements of different bat coronaviruses. An October 2021 letter from NIH Principal Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak disclosed that one such experiment produced an unexpected result, mice infected with a modified virus became sicker, which EcoHealth failed to report promptly, a grant violation; the letter also stated the viruses used could not have produced SARS-CoV-2. Whether this work meets the specific U.S. government technical definition of "gain-of-function research of concern" is genuinely disputed: NIH, EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan-based lead researcher maintain it does not, because the bat viruses studied were not already known to be highly transmissible or virulent in humans, while critics such as Rutgers microbiologist Richard Ebright argue the experiments unequivocally qualify. In 2024 congressional testimony, Tabak told lawmakers "it depends on your definition of gain-of-function research" when pressed on the question. NIH funding of the EcoHealth-WIV bat coronavirus research is confirmed, but characterizing that research as gain-of-function "of concern" remains an open dispute between government officials and outside virologists, not the settled fact Rogan's statement implies.