American billionaire and head of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Elon Musk accused USAID of helping with “biological weapons” research. That's what he called the COVID-19 infection.
He wrote about this on his profile on the X social network. He is talking about assistance to the non-profit organization EcoHealth Alliance.
“Did you know that USAID, using your tax dollars, funded research into biological weapons, including COVID-19, which has killed millions of people?,” he wrote.
His words are a response to a message from the network user Kanekoa The Great, who said that USAID funds were allocated to the EcoHealth Alliance. This organization helped with coronavirus research in the Wuhan laboratory, where the virus first leaked. However, he also calls the funding figure of $53 million, although this is not confirmed in open sources.
In addition, the user claims that USAID is allegedly closely linked to the CIA and participated in organizing “coups d'état” in a number of countries, mentioning Ukraine in this context. He also accuses the CIA of deliberately concealing information about the origin of COVID-19, allegedly due to its role in funding research through USAID, although there are no documents that could confirm this.
What is this program?
The mentioned episode concerns the PREDICT program, which operated from 2009 to 2019. The goal of the program was to identify potentially dangerous viruses that could pose a threat to humanity and find methods to counter them. Within the framework of this program, about 1,200 new viruses were discovered, including more than 160 coronaviruses.
It is worth noting that due to the EcoHealth Alliance's ties to the Wuhan laboratory, Washington and Washington DC have demanded that the organization's funding be stopped in 2022. However, it is worth noting that this initiative came from Republicans, who are allies of the current President Donald Trump.
As is known, during his first term, Trump repeatedly stated that the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus, which led to the pandemic, was of artificial origin and its spread was associated with the leak of the virus from the Wuhan laboratory. In 2020, he even openly accused Beijing of hiding information.
During Joe Biden's term, US rhetoric became more restrained. However, in 2023-2024, Republicans launched an active investigation into the activities of the EcoHealth Alliance, and later Congress even passed a law requiring the declassification of all information regarding the origin of the coronavirus.