The speech comes as the NIH lost $2.7 billion in funding through the Trump administration's DOGE-style cuts.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya stated the possibility that is widely understood by millions of Americans: that the United States is complicit in the start of the Covid pandemic.
Government employees, including some sheep wearing face masks, walked out after Bhattacharya said: "It's possible that the pandemic was caused by research conducted by human beings, and it's also possible that the NIH partly sponsored that research."
Bhattacharya's comments were referring to the National Institute of Health funding gain of function research in bats at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
As at least 30 scientists exited the auditorium, Bhattacharya called them out: "It's nice to have free speech. You're welcome, you guys."
ICYMI — NIH employees walk out as Director @DrJBhattacharya suggests that the NIH helped fund COVID-19, which may have originated from the Wuhan lab.
— Toria Brooke (@realtoriabrooke) May 20, 2025
The NIH was funding gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute.
pic.twitter.com/hRPDORzFua
It is a known fact that in the years leading up to the pandemic, the NIH was funding gain of function research, otherwise known as "virus manipulation experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where the CIA and FBI believe the Covid virus leaked from."
Dr. Bhattacharya still continued his speech after the scientists exited the room:
"If it's true that we sponsored research that caused the pandemic — and if you look at polls of the American people, that's what most people believe, and I’ve looked at the scientific evidence and I believe it — [then] what we have to do is make sure that we don’t engage in research that is any risk…to human populations."
