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--- predict [2022/12/07 01:53]
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 The details are redacted.((https://web.archive.org/web/20220316190411/https://usrtk.org/biohazards-blog/virus-hunter-siphoned-funds-for-global-virome-project/))
+==== USAID PREDICT DEEP VZN Virus Hunters Close Shop 2023 ====
+BMJ 2023; 382 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p2002 (Published 07 September 2023) Cite this as: BMJ 2023;382:p2002
+{{ ::usaid_-_deep_vzn_-_virus_hunters.png?400|}}
+For more than a decade the US government has been funding international projects engaged in identifying **exotic wildlife viruses** that might someday infect humans.
+Although critics have raised concerns over the potentially catastrophic risks of such virus hunting activities,1 hundreds of millions of dollars in unabated funding have symbolised a commitment to the effort.
+The shuttering of the project, as described in a new congressional budget document and during interviews with scientists and federal policy makers, marks an abrupt retreat by the US government from wildlife virus hunting, an activity that has also been funded by the [[:Department of Defense]] and the [[:National Institutes of Health]].
+The turnabout follows early warnings raised by sceptics—including officials in the Biden White House—that the $125m (£99m; €115m) “DEEP VZN” programme could inadvertently ignite a [[:pandemic]]. The misgivings continue to resonate, as the cause of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the world’s deadliest such event in a century, remains unproved.
+When USAID, an arm of the [[:US State Department]], launched DEEP VZN (pronounced “deep vision”) in October 2021, the agency promoted it as “a critical next step . . . to understand and address the risks posed by zoonotic diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans.”2 Short for **“Discovery & Exploration of Emerging Pathogens—Viral Zoonoses,” DEEP VZN** succeeded an earlier USAID programme called PREDICT and aimed to find previously unknown pathogens from three viral families: coronaviruses; filoviruses, such as Ebola; and paramyxoviruses, including Nipah virus. The aim was to help the world “be better prepared to detect, prevent and respond to future biological threats.”2
+Officials at [[:Washington State University]], hired by USAID to help administer DEEP VZN, said in a submission to the agency that the university’s goal was to collect around 480 000 samples from wildlife, seeking out “previously unknown” viruses to “identify a subset that pose a significant pandemic threat.” The university said that the project aimed to “detect and characterize” as many as 12 000 novel viruses over the programme’s five years.3
+Beginning in July of this year, however, officials at USAID quietly informed aides to Democratic and Republican members of two Senate committees with jurisdiction over DEEP VZN that it was being shut down. Apart from the Biden White House officials, several Republican senators had questioned the prudence of DEEP VZN, according to Senate letters and the interviews conducted for this article.
+The previously unpublicised decision by [[:USAID]] to terminate DEEP VZN comes amid heightened concerns over the many risks of working with exotic viruses—including **unresolved questions about whether a research mishap or a naturally occurring spillover of virus from an animal species to humans** caused the [[:SARS-CoV-2]] pandemic.4
+In China, where a separate effort to catalogue viruses has been under way for years, scientists have described being bitten or scratched by bats or having bat urine or blood splashed into their eyes and faces.567
+The closure of DEEP VZN was privately relayed to the Senate aides by the office of [[:Atul Gawande]], USAID’s assistant administrator for global health, said officials familiar with the matter. Gawande, an appointee of President Biden, was a general and **endocrine surgeon and bestselling author** before joining the administration in January 2022.
+((https://web.archive.org/web/20230907193736/https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj.p2002))