The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services informed a virology lab in Wuhan, China at the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak that it would halt future federal funding to the facility, according to Bloomberg News. The decision, which was given to the Wuhan Institute of Virology on Monday, comes after the facility reportedly ducked requests to provide documentation of site safety and security measures. The department’s memo also notifies the institute that it will seek to debar it entirely, according to Bloomberg. “This action will ensure the [Wuhan Institute of Virology] does not receive another dollar of federal funding,” a department spokesperson said in a statement. The Biden administration has repeatedly accused the Chinese facility, where researchers conducted coronavirus research in the city were the first documented cases of COVID-19 were recorded, of hampering its investigation into the origins of the pandemic.
