Scientist searching for a coronavirus cure exposes right-wing "disinformation campaign" that led to Trump cutting his funding - 2020-05-11
Scientist searching for a coronavirus cure exposes right-wing "disinformation campaign" that led to Trump cutting his funding May 11, 2020,
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fox-Trump feedback loop has been a dangerous factor undermining the United States' response to the crisis. Now, as CBS News' 60 Minutes documented on Sunday night, right-wing media misinformation about the coronavirus's origins — the idea that it originated in an infectious disease research laboratory in Wuhan, China — has even resulted in the Trump administration shutting down funding for actual pandemic research.
CBS anchor Scott Pelley spotlighted infectious disease researcher Dr. Peter Daszak, head of the New York-based nonprofit medical organization EcoHealth Alliance, which just recently lost a $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As CBS noted, Daszak's "work is helping in the search for a COVID-19 cure."
The broadcast traced the chain of events back to when Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said during an April 14 appearance on Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight: "The NIH gives this $3.7 million grant to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. They then advertise that they need coronavirus researchers. Following that, coronavirus erupts in Wuhan."
