President Trump vowed over the weekend to end US funding to the tune of $3.7 million that had been approved to the Wuhan Institute of Virology by the Obama administration.
With questions swirling over the lab being the possible source of the coronavirus outbreak, Trump addressed the issue when asked at the press briefing.
“The Obama administration gave them a grant of $3.7 million. I’ve been hearing about that. We’ve instructed that if any grants are going to that area, we are looking at it literally about an hour ago and also early in the morning,” Trump said.
“We will end the grant very quickly. It was granted quite a while ago. They were granted a substantial amount of money. We are going to look at it and take a look. But I understand it was a number of years ago.” Trump further noted.
The President asked the reporter who brought up the issue when the grant when given. When she replied 2015, Trump said “2015. Who was president then? I wonder.”
Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who had previously raised the issue in an appearance on Fox News, tweeted his approval for Trump’s promise to end the funding:
"The Obama administration gave them a grant of $3.7 million…we will end that grant very quickly."
The President’s promise came with an acknowledgement that the government is investigating the origins of the virus, including the lab in Wuhan:
Fox News reported, meanwhile that the US has launched a ‘full scale investigation’ into the matter, with US intelligence operatives gathering information regarding the laboratory and the initial outbreak.
The CDC is now investigating 180 cases of children with hepatitis of an “unknown cause,” although health experts in the UK say the cause is likely kids having weakened immune systems due to lockdown.
Five deaths have occurred in the U.S. as a result of the infections, which have swept the globe, impacting numerous countries.
“Adenovirus infection is being investigated as being the possible cause, with nearly half the kids testing positive for the pathogen,” reports CNBC. “Adenovirus is a common virus that normally causes cold or flu-like symptoms. It is not a known cause of hepatitis in otherwise healthy children.”
As we highlighted last month, health experts in the UK warned that the outbreak was likely caused by multiple COVID-19 lockdowns preventing kids from socializing with others and therefore developing strong immune systems.
Adenoviruses cause the common cold, but this can develop into hepatitis if a weakened immune system is unable to fight it off.
“I think it is likely that children mixing in kindergartens and schools have lower immunity to seasonal adenoviruses than in previous years because of restrictions,” said Professor Simon Taylor-Robinson.
“This means they could be more at risk of developing hepatitis because their immune response is weaker to the virus,” he added.
Nowhere in the mainstream reporting of this new surge in cases is it mentioned that multiple lockdowns could have caused the outbreak
Instead, the CDC is still “conducting lab tests to see if the Covid virus might also be a possible cause,” despite the fact that the children impacted in the initial cluster of cases in Alabama did not have COVID-19.
The legacy media is loathe to admit that the same lockdowns they vehemently supported will have drastic consequences for years to come.
As we previously highlighted, a new study published in the Royal Society Open Science journal found that lockdowns in the UK caused around 60,000 children to suffer clinical depression.
A major study by Johns Hopkins University concluded that global lockdowns have had a much more detrimental impact on society than they have produced any benefit, with researchers urging that they “are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”
Many infants are also suffering from cognitive developmental and speech disorders due to adults wearing face coverings during the pandemic.
Illustrating how the issue has largely disappeared, a new poll of Americans finds COVID to be the least of their concerns out of a list of 12 different subjects.
The survey was conducted by Pew Research between April 25-May 1.
Just 19 per cent of respondents said COVID was still a “very big problem,” while 31 per cent said it was a “small problem” and a further 12 per cent said it was “not a problem at all.”
In comparison, 70 per cent of Americans said inflation was a “very big problem,” with a further 23 per cent describing it as a “moderately big problem.”
Here's the latest pew research on the top 12 things Americans are concerned about. Funny, I don't see Ukraine anywhere on that list. pic.twitter.com/uqCYyKu2nU
Ten other issues, including violent crime, illegal immigration and the condition of infrastructure, all rank above COVID-19 in terms of being more of a concern.
As one commentator observed, the war in Ukraine appears nowhere on the list, although Pew chose not to include it as an option.
“Democrats are nearly four times as likely as Republicans to rate climate change as a very big problem (63% vs. 16%),” reports Pew. “Republicans, by contrast, are far more likely than Democrats to view illegal immigration as a very big problem (65% vs. 19%).”
Despite the pandemic virtually being over, numerous states are still enforcing indoor mask mandates and other COVID restrictions that refuse to die.
As we highlighted yesterday, Broadway star Patti LuPone launched an angry rant at an audience member for not wearing a mask properly during a Q&A session despite the fact that she wasn’t wearing one inside the theater.