Reading Room Production — page 188

DRAFT, PRE-DECISIONAL © There has been a long-standing interest among RML scientists ion CoV infections and potential for spillover from animals to humansemong RME-seientists. © CoV are considered to be among the likely causes of future pandemics. © WIV-1is a coronavirus that was isolated from bats and characterized by WIV scientists. © Itis not closely related to nor a progenitor of SARS-CoV-1/2 n>» MERS-CoV. © WIV scientists posted the WIV-1 sequence on a public database. © USS. scientists used that sequence to construct a virus using standard virology methods that they outlined in a 2016 PNASViruses article. + They did not get actual virus from WIV. = The RML scientists collaborated with the U.S. scientists (University of North Carolina) thetwho had constructed the WIV-1 and got the virus from them for their studies. = [RML scientists do not and have never collaborated directly with WIV scientists. I Research at RML on WIV-1 © Because of the interest in CoV, RML scientists decided to study WIV-1 to determine if WIV-1 had potential to spread to people and be a potential pandemic pathogen. = Identifying potential pandemic critical pathogens is on essential» research goal in preventing future pandemics. o WIV-1 did not grow well in the bats and the bats did not shed the virus. o The work was deneperformed in 2016 and published in 2018 -- well before COVID-19 was ever identified. Tough Q/As: 1. Did Daily Mail reach out to NIH prior to the article for comment? No, the Daily Mail did not ask NIH to comment. Additional background, Daily Mail rarely asks NIH to comment on upcoming articles regarding NIH. 2. Does RML fund GOF research? The 2016 study was a natural history study of WIV-1 and there were no GOF aspects of the study. The viruses used in the experiment were as they weere found in nature and were not changed by the investigators. [Alll work is reviewed by the Institutional Biosafety Commented [NIH3]: NIAID - please confirm this point. Are there papers that someone from RML and WIV are co-authors? NIH 2023-11-27 12:35:00 Commented [SS([4R3]: To OLPA: NIAID can confirm this statement. We cannot speak to affiliations of individual scientists prior to, or subsequent to, their collaborations with RML. As you are aware, other components of NIH have provided grants directly to WIV in the past. Selgrade, Sara (NIH/NIAID) [E] 2023-11-28 16:42:00 Committee and. as applicable, the Dual Use Research of Concern Institutional Review Entity prior to b conducted. Commented [M[5]: Not sure if you want a broader statement here. Feel free to delete if preferred. Could always pull language from other letters to add if needed. McCormick-Ell, Jessica (NIH/OD/ORS) [E] 2023-11-27 17:10:00