Wuhan Iab can delete data in explosive legal agreement with U.S. lab – U.S. Right to Know

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has the right to ask a partnering lab in the U.S. to destroy all records of their work, according to a legal document obtained by U.S. Right to Know. 

A memorandum of understanding between the Wuhan lab and the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch states that each lab can ask the other to return or destroy any so-called secret files any communications, documents, data or equipment resulting from their collaboration and ask that they wipe any copies. 

The party is entitled to ask the other to destroy and/or return the secret files, materials and equipment without any backups, it states. 

This right is retained even after the agreement s five year term ends in October 2022. All documents are eligible for destruction under the agreement s broad language.

All cooperation & shall be treated as confidential information by the parties, the agreement states.

The directors of the maximum biocontainment labs in Wuhan and Texas announced a formal cooperative agreement in Science in 2018. The labs are two of just a handful of facilities in the world that do similar cutting edge work on novel coronaviruses. The lab in Texas, with funding from the National Institutes of Health, was doing biosafety training with the lab in Wuhan, which operates under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The labs also intended to do joint research projects and share resources, according to the agreement. 

The revelation that the Wuhan lab retained the right to call for the destruction of data on U.S. servers funded by U.S. taxpayers comes amid a debate about what sort of investigation is necessary to exculpate the city s coronavirus research from suspicions it sparked the COVID-19 pandemic. It also raises questions about assurances from Wuhan Institute of Virology senior scientist Zhengli Shi that she would never delete sensitive data.

The clause also raises a number of legal red flags for the Texas lab, experts say.

The clause is quite frankly explosive, said Reuben Guttman, a partner at Guttman, Buschner & Brooks PLLC who specializes in ensuring the integrity of government programs. Anytime I see a public entity, I would be very concerned about destroying records.

via usrtk.org

W.T. actual F?!