A New York-based nonprofit led by a controversial scientist has been awarded millions of more dollars to study viruses in Southeast Asia.
On September 21st, EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit directed by Dr. Peter Daszak, was awarded a five-year, $3.1 million contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, led by Dr. Anthony Fauci. Daszak, a British zoologist, consultant, and public expert on disease ecology, is also the scientist responsible for trying to dispel any theories that the Covid pandemic resulted from a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Last year Vanity Fair reported that Daszak was accountable for organizing a letter signed by 27 scientists and published by The Lancet, a very influential British medical journal, that stated that the lab leak theory was nothing more than a conspiracy theory. Six signatures were those of scientists who had worked for or had been funded by EcoHealth Alliance, a conflict of interest not revealed at the time. Daszak’s interest in and links to the Wuhan Lab were also absent from the letter. Also of note is his close relationship with Fauci. Amongst the many emails requested and released is a “personal thank you” letter from Daszak to Fauci, applauding him for pushing the notion that COVID-19 spread naturally from bats to humans, dispelling any thought of gain of function researched involved in the leak.
Daszak has somehow found a way to dodge all questions about EcoHealth’s work and involvement with the Wuhan Lab. Emails requested and obtained by Judicial Watch reveal that between 2014 and 2019, EcoHealth channeled at least $800,000 to the Wuhan Lab to fund a study, spearheaded by Daszak, called “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.
One DC lawmaker has called for an end to public financing for EcoHealth until leadership can answer questions. Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa says, “This is like a bad sequel with the same plot and characters, but a bigger budget. “It is absolutely batty that NIH would give another cent of taxpayer money to EcoHealth when the group has failed to respond to repeated NIH requests about … turning over information about the dangerous experiments being conducted in China’s state-run Wuhan Institute. EcoHealth’s president has demonstrated his total disregard for scientific inquiry by covering up what was really happening in Wuhan,” Ernst added.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA) added, “EcoHealth Alliance and Peter Daszak should not be getting a dime of taxpayer funds until they are completely transparent. Period. This is madness. This further intensifies our extensive commitment on the Energy and Commerce Committee to ensure accountability from the National Institutes of Health for its role in supporting taxpayer-funded risky research without proper oversight of its grantees. The NIH must restore trust with the American people who deserve every assurance that research dollars are spent with the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and biosafety standards that meet the goal of preventing the next pandemic.”
