Republican lawmakers have slammed President Biden’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) decision to renew the taxpayer-funded grant to EcoHealth Alliance for bat coronavirus research, calling it “absolutely reckless.”
British zoologist Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance, the nonprofit at the center of the COVID-19 lab leak theory, will resume research after former President Donald Trump suspended the grant in April 2020.
The grant was halted under the Trump administration after it was revealed that NIH funneled US tax dollars through EcoHealth to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which conducts risky gain-of-function research — the deliberate alteration of viruses to make them more contagious. or more lethal. The lab in Wuhan is where the COVID-19 virus likely originated, according to US intelligence assessments.
Now, three years later, the Biden administration is extending the NIH grant, meaning EcoHealth will get $2.3 million in taxpayers’ money over the next four years to work on ‘bat-origin coronaviruses’, sparking outrage from members of Congress.
Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee that found multiple serious violations by EcoHealth of the contractual terms of the NIH grant, denounced the “absolutely reckless” decision.
“It is absolutely reckless for the NIH to extend a grant to EcoHealth Alliance given their negligence and the breach of their contract with the NIH over the coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Griffith said in a statement to Tuesday. DailyMail.com.
He said now that it is widely believed that COVID probably stemmed from a laboratory incident in Wuhan, it is clear that EcoHealth have been “unrepentant” about their failures and have refused to cooperate with Congress.
“Until they can demonstrate a willingness to work with Congress to resolve outstanding questions and honor all terms of their federal contracts paid for with US tax dollars, all funding should remain suspended and no new contracts awarded.” , continued Griffith. .
A report by Republican lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee last December revealed that there are “indications” that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) had a laboratory incident related to China’s biological weapons program that led to COVID-19 being ‘blown over’. to the general public
Senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that the grant extension fails the ‘COVID smell test’
A report by Republican lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee last December revealed that there are “indications” that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) had a laboratory incident related to China’s biological weapons program that led to COVID-19 being ‘blown over’. to the general public.
In addition, FBI Director Chris Wray confirmed in March that COVID-19 “most likely” came from a Chinese lab.
“The FBI has long determined that the origin of the pandemic is most likely a possible laboratory incident in Wuhan,” Wray told Fox News in an interview with Bret Baier. “You’re talking about a possible leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.”
According to recent reports, the Department of Energy also believes that the pandemic is man-made.
Senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that the NIH grant renewal fails the “COVID smell test.”
“Giving EcoHealth another penny to conduct research on coronaviruses will not pass the COVID smell test,” she said.
Ecohealth has already betrayed the trust of American taxpayers by funneling money to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology for risky experiments on bat coronaviruses that may have unleashed the COVID-19 pandemic on the world. Americans deserve accountability, which is why it’s past time to defund EcoHealth.”
Ernst submitted a bill in 2021 that would guarantee grant accountability and prevent money from ending up in the hands of the WIV.
EcoHealth Alliance President Daszak defended the grant extension, telling DailyMail.com that the funding would be used purely for lab work and to analyze samples already collected and sequenced at WIV and other institutes around the world.
Daszak has also denied that WIV conducted gain-of-function research using EcoHealth funds.
As part of the terms of the grant extension, EcoHealth has agreed not to outsource work to China, collect new virus samples from the wild, or conduct “gain of function” research.
Medical staff treat patients infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus at a hospital in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province in 2020
Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, denounced NIH’s “absolutely reckless” decision
Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., has previously accused NIH of “lying” about job gains research and its connection to Wuhan and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, former principal director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which supports research at NIH, had repeatedly denied that the government agency funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan.
However, the NIH has since admitted that research “supported by the NIH in Wuhan created viruses that either gained function or gained lethality,” Paul noted in an op-ed.
Senior Vice President Justin Goodman of the White Coat Waste Project also reiterated calls for the grant to be withdrawn immediately.
“The shrewd taxpayer-funded grant that funded the EcoHealth Alliance’s dangerous animal experiments in Wuhan that likely caused the pandemic should be halted, not reimbursed,” Goodman said.
He described his organization’s work to “first expose” and end EcoHealth’s partnership with the Wuhan lab in 2020.
Goodman referenced a recent federal audit that revealed how EcoHealth “misspent tax dollars.”
He says there is more work to be done to hold the “reckless, rogue lab contractor” accountable.