HHS bans EcoHealth Alliance and group’s ex-prez from receiving federal funding for 5 years after Wuhan virus experiments
The Department of Health and Human Services on Friday barred EcoHealth Alliance and the group’s former president, Peter Daszak, from receiving federal funding for five years after they failed to report potentially dangerous gain-of-function research experiments to the government.
HHS determined that a five-year period of debarment for the Manhattan-based nonprofit and Daszak was “necessary to protect the Federal Government’s business interests,” according to a letter sent to both parties by the government agency.
The House Oversight Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic had been investigating the novel bat virus research that EcoHealth Alliance and Daszak conducted out of China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology leading up to the COVID-19 outbreak.
HHS banned EcoHealth Alliance and the group’s ex-boss Peter Daszak from receiving federal funding for five years. Getty Images
The panel uncovered evidence last year indicating that EcoHealth Alliance and Daszak “willingly” and “repeatedly” violated multiple requirements of a multimillion-dollar National Institutes of Health grant for the controversial project.
“Justice for the American people was served today,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement after releasing HHS’ debarment notices.
“Bad actor EcoHealth Alliance and its corrupt former President, Dr. Peter Daszak, were formally debarred by HHS for using taxpayer funds to facilitate dangerous gain-of-function research in China,” Comer continued. “Today’s decision is not only a victory for the U.S. taxpayer, but also for American national security and the safety of citizens worldwide.”
The select subcommittee on the pandemic recommended debarment last May after finding that EcoHealth Alliance “routinely ignored government oversight requests, failed to report dangerous gain-of-function experiments conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and produced a required research report two years late.”
That same month, HHS suspended all federal grants to EcoHealth Alliance and informed Daszak that it had “adequate evidence” to recommend debarment.
In 2019, EcoHealth Alliance and Daszak received millions for a project titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.” ECOHEALTH ALLIANCE
The agency cited the select subcommittee’s discoveries when it finally handed down its punishment on Friday.
“Given that a lab-related incident involving gain-of-function research is the most likely origin of COVID-19, EcoHealth and its former President should never again receive a single cent from the U.S. taxpayer,” Comer declared.
In 2019, EcoHealth Alliance and Daszak were awarded an NIH grant of more than $4 million to conduct a project titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.”
The grant was initially suspended in April 2020, with NIH’s then-principal deputy director Lawrence Tabak revealing in October 2021 that EcoHealth Alliance had violated the terms of its grant by performing the gain-of-function research – which modified novel bat coronaviruses and made them 10,000 times more infectious for research on lab mice — and failing to report the practice to NIH.
The EcoHealth Alliance and Daszak are accused of failing to report potentially dangerous experiments to the government. Tada Images – stock.adobe.com
EcoHealth Alliance’s research has not been directly linked to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The group did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
