Federal health authority stops funding Covid-19 research organization due to allegations of risky experiments

Federal health officials stopped funding the U.S. research organization EcoHealth Alliance, arguing that the organization failed to oversee experiments at a Chinese laboratory before the pandemic.

EcoHealth, a New York-based nonprofit that investigates the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, worked with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. Both organizations are now facing allegations that their experiments on bats may have contributed to the development and spread of Covid-19.

The Department of Health said EcoHealth failed to adequately monitor and report risky virus experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, violating the terms of federal grants and biosafety requirements.

The department has decided to end federal funding to EcoHealth, which could potentially disqualify the organization from being eligible for new federal contracts, grants, and other types of funding from the United States.

EcoHealth has been under federal investigation since the beginning of the pandemic, with officials repeatedly demanding that the organization release required documents. In April 2020, former President Donald Trump publicly questioned the organization’s work in Wuhan and suspended its federal grants. However, over Republican objections, the funding was reinstated last year.

The federal government has already cut funding to the Wuhan Institute, arguing that the laboratory failed to provide essential documents related to its research.

Recent debates among federal officials and scientists about the possibility that Covid-19 could have arisen from a spillover event or a leak in a laboratory have reignited investigations into EcoHealth’s work.

Although there is no evidence that Wuhan Lab or any other research organization possessed SARS-CoV-2 before the pandemic, officials are suspicious of EcoHealth’s president Peter Daszakwho was one of the most prominent voices in 2020 arguing that the pandemic was caused by a virus spread between animals and humans.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress welcomed the decision and released a report saying EcoHealth and Daszak had acted with “contempt for the American people.”

Representative. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Committee on the Covid Response, said, “The immediate suspension of EcoHealth’s funding and future exclusion is not only a victory for the U.S. taxpayer, but also for America’s national security and the safety of citizens worldwide.”

Representative. Raul Ruiz (D-California), the panel’s top Democrat, made a similar statement: “Any recipient of federal taxpayer funds has an obligation to uphold the highest standards of transparency and accountability to the American public.” Ruiz added that the decision to stop funding EcoHealth should not be used as evidence to link the company to the origins of the pandemic.

EcoHealth supporters responded that the organization was being used as a scapegoat because there was no evidence that its work was linked to the pandemic.

In an email last year to The Washington Post, Daszak wrote: “We are convinced that the research on bat coronavirus conducted by EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology could not have caused the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Daszak announced that the organization would appeal the federal government’s decision to stop its funding.