State Department was steered away from coronavirus origins probe, ex-officials say State Department leaders were warned not to pursue an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, former department officials told Fox News on Thursday. The concern was that a probe would bring attention to U.S. funding of research at the Wuhan institute from which the virus may have escaped. Vanity Fair reported that officials calling for transparency from the Chinese government were told not to explore the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s "gain of function" research, because it would bring what the outlet described as "unwelcome" attention of U.S. government funding into that research.