‘The Next Revolution’ host Steve Hilton investigated the origins of the coronavirus and announced his findings on Fox News Sunday night.

Hilton noted that a Utah mink was the first case of COVID-19 to be found in a wild animal.

According to Hilton, minks and related animals have respiratory systems that operate similarity to humans.

About 10 years ago, researchers in the Netherlands did an experiment on ferrets and found that a virus that started without the ability to be transmitted throughout the air, can eventually gain that ability.

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This led to a new type of research called “Gain-of-Function” virus research. The idea was to replicate in a lab what had been done to the ferrets.

“Take a virus and then manipulate its genetic code to make it stronger and more powerful. The virus would gain new functions – hence the name,” Hilton explained.

Many researchers thought the new gain-of-function virus research was promising. If researchers could engineer the most contagious, deadly viruses in a lab, they could learn about potential treatments and vaccines without an actual outbreak.

Over the years, gain-of-function virus research has been used all over the world. One of the leading laboratories in gain-of-function research was based in Wuhan, China at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“As well as having great potential to help mankind, gain-of-function research can also hurt us,” Hilton said. “Imagine if a deadly virus engineered in the lab to be incredibly contagious, somehow escaped from the lab. It could reek havoc, precisely because it was designed to do that.”

Gain-of-function research has always been controversial because of these risks. Under the Obama administration, the White House cut funding for gain-of-function research following “recent biosafety incidents at federal research facilities,” the administration said in a statement in 2014.

“The funding pause will apply to gain-of-function research projects that may be reasonably anticipated to confer attributes to influenza, MERS or SARS viruses such that the virus would have enhanced pathogenicity and/or transmissibility in mammals via the respiratory route,” the statement continued.

According to Hilton, leading infectious disease doctor Anthony Fauci funded the first ferret study. Fauci said it was a “risk worth taking” and “important information and insights can come from generating a potentially dangerous virus in the laboratory.”

Hilton showed documents that proved in 2014, Dr. Fauci commissioned and continued to fund gain-of-function virus research at the Wuhan Institute in direct violation of the Obama administration ban.

In 2014, Fauci began a research project to assess the risk of new coronavirus emerging from wild animals, like bats.

One of the main goals of the project was to see what viruses can affect both animals and humans.

The project was sub-contracted to EcoHealth Alliance, INC based in New York. It was run by Peter Daszak, a zoologist that specializes in wildlife diseases.

Dr. Fauci funded over 3 million dollars to EcoHealth for his project, despite the Obama administration ban.

Daszak then sub-contracted the project to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology then began to genetically engineer new viruses from the feces of bats and infected human cells with the virus.

“The genetic changes they made in the lab, unlocked a highly specific doorway into the human body. The virus that causes COVID-19 uses that same exact doorway,” Hilton said.

Listen to the full video here:

Follow Annaliese Levy on Twitter @AnnalieseLevy