NIH’s axing of bat coronavirus grant a ‘horrible precedent’ and might break rules, critics say

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/04/nih-s-axing-bat-coronavirus-grant-horrible-precedent-and-might-break-rules-critics-say?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=905babc439-briefing-dy-20200501&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-905babc439-44992633#

Funding cut for bat coronavirus research

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has taken the unusual step of suddenly cutting the funding for a US-China project that investigates how coronaviruses, such as SARS-CoV-2, move from bats to humans. The NIH declined to comment on why it canceled the grant, which was in its sixth year. The project seems to have fallen victim to a conspiracy theory about the origin of the virus. “This is cutting off your face to spite your nose,” says infectious-disease researcher Gerald Keusch, a former director of the NIH’s Fogarty International Center. “This is the worst kind of thing that political interference can cause in a democracy.”

Science | 9 min read