India’s government health officials are asking the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop funding virus research studies in their country because the CDC is working with an Indian lab that is not qualified to work on highly dangerous pathogens.
News reports in February 2020 indicated that the CDC was working with the India-based Manipal Centre for Virus Research on the Nipah virus, which is considered to be a “potential bioweapon.” Other projects that the CDC and the U.S. Department of Defense, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have also been under fire for include “secret research conducted on bat hunters” in eastern India.
In May 2020, the CDC threatened that they may not send $3.6 million that had been allocated to India to fight COVID, since the agency had been put on a “watch list” by India in December, due to the “inquiry” into their working with the Manipal lab.
SOURCES:
GREATGAMEINDIA June 1, 2020
Hindustan Times February 7, 2020
The Hindu May 14, 2020