The claim that “The Obama administration provided a $3.7 million grant to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China” started in April 2020.
The report started to circulate that the National Institutes of Health had provided the Wuhan Institute of Virology a $3.7 million grant in 2015, while former US President Barack Obama was in office. These reports suggested COVID-19 had escaped or been deliberately released from this laboratory.
A number of popular commentators provide a picture of Dr Fauci and Barack Obama with the above caption, on their websites.
A simple search of Getty Images provides a number of similar pictures from 2nd December 2014. The picture is of Dr Fauci and Barack Obama in December at Vaccine Research Centre in Betheseda, Maryland with the US Secretary Health an Human Services. The meeting was relating to Ebola Research for an Ebola vaccine.
Melinda Gates was not present.
A popular social media myth appeared in July 2020 that stated hydroxychloroquine would be an effective “cure and vaccine” against COVID-19 and that the director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr Anthony Fauci knew this in 2005.
The article was written by Bryan Fischer, a former director of the American Family Association.