US-China Researchers Proposed Engineering SARS-CoV-2-Like Viruses Before the COVID Pandemic

By the time the research grant proposal was submitted to DARPA, an American scientist had already created ‘SARS-like chimera’ viruses.

Rendering of SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins binding to ACE2 receptors. Shutterstock

Scientists from the United States aimed to work with the controversial Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) to create new coronaviruses similar to the COVID-19 virus in 2018, according to newly released documents.

On Thursday, the U.S. Right to Know, a nonprofit public health research group, published documents related to a U.S.-China research grant proposal called DEFUSE. Under the research program, “American scientists planned to work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology to engineer novel coronaviruses with the features of SARS-CoV-2 the year before the virus emerged from that city,” the nonprofit said in a Jan. 18 post.