The billionaire has branded the U.S. Agency for International Development a “criminal organization”
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has accused the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) of funding bioweapons research, including projects that allegedly led to the emergence of Covid-19, calling the agency a “criminal organization.”
Musk was responding to a post by user @KanekoaTheGreat on Sunday, which claimed that USAID had forwarded $53 million to EcoHealth Alliance. The post claimed that these funds were used to support gain-of-function research on coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, potentially leading to the development of Covid-19.
“Did you know that USAID used YOUR tax dollars to fund bioweapons research, including COVID-19, that has killed millions of people?” Musk wrote.
Musk did not elaborate on the allegations, but the post he responded to went on to say that “the CIA’s deception regarding the origin of COVID-19 becomes much clearer when you consider USAID’s long history as a CIA front organization.”
“USAID is a criminal organization,” Musk wrote in another post, in which he referred to a video about USAID’s alleged involvement in Internet censorship and “dubious CIA activities.”
The EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S.-based nonprofit, has been at the center of controversy over its collaboration with China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. The organization has denied that its work is “gain-of-function” research, but in May 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suspended all federal funding for the EcoHealth Alliance because of concerns about the organization’s oversight of high-risk experiments and failure to report research activities in a timely manner.
The CIA thinks it is “more likely” that Covid-19 came from a laboratory leak rather than a natural source, a spokesperson for the agency said last month after confirming John Ratcliffe as CIA director.
US President Donald Trump’s nominee, Ratcliffe, was a vocal supporter of the lab leak version, calling it “the only theory supported by science, intelligence and common sense.”
USAID has funded global health initiatives in the past, including the PREDICT program, which aimed to identify viruses with pandemic potential and ran in partnership with EcoHealth Alliance from 2009 to 2020. In 2021, USAID launched a $125 million follow-up program called Discovery & Exploration of Emerging Pathogens – Viral Zoonoses – but it was discontinued early in 2023.
Russia has repeatedly expressed concern about the network of biological research laboratories supported by the Pentagon and other US agencies around the world, especially in Ukraine and other countries near its borders, claiming that these facilities are involved in biological weapons research.
Reporting on the activities of the US biolabs was one of the main priorities of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the top official of the Russian military for the dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction. He was murdered together with his assistant in Moscow in December in the bombing allegedly ordered by Kiev.
In its latest reports, the Russian Ministry of Defense has pointed to the transfer of unfinished Ukrainian projects to post-Soviet states and Southeast Asia, stating that Africa has now become a focus of interest for the US government, which views the region as an unlimited natural reservoir of dangerous pathogens and a testing ground for experimental medical treatments.
The US Department of Defense has admitted that it supports some laboratories in Ukraine, but stressed that these efforts are focused on preventing infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine development, and that the laboratories are owned and operated by the respective countries, not the United States. Western officials have consistently dismissed Moscow’s investigations as disinformation aimed at discrediting “legitimate” public health initiatives.
However, Moscow and Beijing have demanded more transparency from the US regarding its military biological activities. Last year, the two countries agreed on a joint approach to biosecurity threats and the strengthening of the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention (BTWC).
Translated and edited by L. Earth