New Emails Reveal Plans to Pursue Creation of COVID-like Viruses Despite Pentagon Funding Refusal

By Hans Mahncke & Jeff Carlson

New United States Geological Survey (USGS) emails, released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), reveal that EcoHealth Alliance was planning to proceed with the DEFUSE proposal to create COVID-like viruses, despite the plan having been rejected by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The existence of DEFUSE was revealed in September 2021, when a whistleblower leaked the document to the COVID origin search group DRASTIC. Originally devised in 2018, DEFUSE is a blueprint for engineering COVID-like viruses by inserting a furin cleavage site into SARS virus backbones. The furin cleavage site, which has never been observed in naturally occurring SARS viruses, is the standout feature of the COVID-19 virus that makes it particularly virulent in humans. 

DEFUSE was spearheaded by EcoHealth Alliance, the organization through which the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the leadership of Director Anthony Fauci channeled federal grant funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The project also included Ralph Baric from the University of North Carolina, Shi Zhengli from the WIV, and Tonie Rocke from the USGS. Baric, the so-called godfather of gain-of-function research, had previously collaborated with Shi on an experiment that rendered SARS viruses infectious in humans.

In 2018, the group applied for over $14 million from DARPA but were turned down as the project was deemed too dangerous. When the existence of DEFUSE became known in 2021, proponents of the natural origin theory for COVID-19 argued that the project could not have triggered the COVID-19 pandemic because it was not funded. Peter Daszak, the president of EcoHealth, unequivocally stated, "The DARPA proposal was not funded. Therefore, the work was not done. Simple.” However, the newly released emails show that EcoHealth was planning to pursue the project through other means. 

The new batch of FOIA emails, which was obtained by independent journalist James Tobias, contains various emails that were exchanged among the DEFUSE group in 2018. Most notably, in June 2018, an EcoHealth representative writing on behalf of Daszak informed the group that DARPA had refused to fund DEFUSE. The representative mentioned that they would continue to pursue the project: "we will continue to look for other sources of funding to pursue this type of work." This statement directly contradicts Daszak's public statement on the matter. It is not known which other funding stream EcoHealth pursued. However, it is known that the Chinese Academy of Sciences, under which the WIV operates, funded related projects at the time.

Daszak has also publicly stated that the DEFUSE grant was turned down due to budget constraints rather than safety concerns: “Never once did they mention any concerns or issues around safety; never once did they mention gain-of-function. The reason they told us it was rejected was because the amount we asked for was too much for them.” However, DARPA’s rejection letter specifically cites safety concerns over gain-of-function experiments, as well as criticizing the DEFUSE authors for not having a risk mitigation plan. 

The issue of whether DEFUSE was carried out has long been a point of contention in the COVID origin debate. The fact that a blueprint for creating viruses similar to COVID-19 was developed in Wuhan a year before the emergence of the virus has always been strong circumstantial evidence that the pandemic originated from the WIV. Initially, proponents of a natural origin pushed back by claiming that the blueprint was not sufficiently detailed regarding the furin cleavage site. However, an earlier batch of FOIA emails detailing the discussion among the DEFUSE group showed that they intended to insert such a site at the exact spot where it can be found in the COVID-19 virus. Out of 1535 known SARS (sarbecoviruses) viruses, only one contains a furin cleavage site, which is the COVID-19 virus. Another counterargument presented by proponents of a natural origin was that the DEFUSE research was planned to be conducted at Baric's laboratory. However, previous FOIA emails revealed that Daszak's plan to inform the Pentagon that the research would be conducted at Baric's lab was just a pretense: “Once we get the funds, we can then allocate who does what exact work, and I believe that a lot of these assays can be done in Wuhan as well.” 

Aside from revealing that EcoHealth had plans to pursue the DEFUSE project by obtaining funding elsewhere, the new email batch also puts to rest the argument from natural origin advocates that there is no evidence that any of the DEFUSE work was ever done. The logical counterargument was that a complex proposal like DEFUSE would not have been pitched to the Pentagon unless substantial work had already been performed. This counterargument is now supported by documentary evidence. In March 2018, more than three months before the Pentagon rejected DEFUSE, Rocke contacted Baric to inquire: "I have a couple of questions about the SARS-CoV spike glycoproteins you are developing with respect to the DARPA grant we are collaborating on." Rocke not only revealed that Baric was already carrying out specific aspects of DEFUSE but also that the whole group had commenced working on the project.

The reason why Rocke, who was not involved in other collaborations with Baric, Shi, and Daszak, was part of the DEFUSE group seems to be her expertise in animal immunization. While the first phase of the DEFUSE plan was to create Covid-like viruses, the second and third phases involved creating vaccines for these newly created viruses and spraying native bat populations with the vaccines. The scheme was wisely turned down by DARPA but it was Rocke's involvement that opened the door to obtaining the latest FOIA emails. Daszak's and Shi's emails are beyond the reach of FOIA, and Baric's University of North Carolina has been actively obstructing FOIA requests. However, Rocke's USGS, an agency not usually associated with the so-called FOIA wars, was possibly less prepared to fight against the release of the documents.