Republican lawmakers are slamming the decision by President Biden’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) to renew its taxpayer-funded grant to EcoHealth Alliance to research bat coronaviruses, calling it ‘absolutely reckless.’
British zoologist Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance, the non-profit at the center of the COVID-19 lab leak theory, will resume the research after former President Donald Trump suspended the grant in April 2020.
The grant was terminated under the Trump administration after it was revealed NIH funneled millions in U.S. taxpayer dollars through EcoHealth to the Wuhan lab, which conducts risky gain-of-function research – the intentional alteration of viruses to make them more infectious or deadly.
Now, three years later, the Biden administration is renewing the NIH grant, which means EcoHealth will get $2.3 million in taxpayer dollars over the next four years to work on ‘bat-origin coronaviruses,’ sparking outrage from members of Congress.
Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, slammed the ‘absolutely reckless’ decision by NIH.
‘It’s absolutely reckless that the NIH has renewed a grant for EcoHealth Alliance given their negligence and the breach of their contract with the NIH on the coronavirus research done at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,’ said Griffith in a statement to DailyMail.com Tuesday.
He said that now that it is widely understood COVID likely came out of a lab incident in Wuhan, it’s clear that EcoHealth has ‘not been contrite’ 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 fulfill all of the terms of their federal contracts, paid for with American taxpayer dollars, all funding should remain suspended, and no new contracts should be awarded,’ Griffith continued.
A report put out by House Republican lawmakers on the Intelligence Committee last December revealed that there are ‘indications’ the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) had a lab incident tied to China’s biological weapons program that led to COVID-19 being ‘spilled over’ to the general public
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told DailyMail.com Tuesday that the renewal of the grant fails the ‘COVID smell test’
A report put out by House Republican lawmakers on the Intelligence Committee last December revealed that there are ‘indications’ the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) had a lab incident tied to China’s biological weapons program that led to COVID-19 being ‘spilled 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 for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,’ Wray told Fox News in an interview with Bret Baier. ‘Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.’
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told DailyMail.com Tuesday that the renewal of the grant fails the ‘COVID smell test.’
‘Giving another penny to EcoHealth to conduct studies on coronaviruses doesn’t pass the COVID smell test,’ she said.
‘Ecohealth has already betrayed the trust of American taxpayers by funneling funds 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 introduced a bill in 2021 that would ensure grant accountability and keep money from getting in the hands of the WIV.
EcoHealth Alliance President Daszak defended the grant’s renewal, telling DailyMail.com the funding would be used purely for lab work and to analyze samples that were already collected and sequences at the WIV and other institutes worldwide.
Daszak has also denied that the WIV performed gain-of-function research using EcoHealth funds.
As part of the grant renewal terms, EcoHealth has agreed not to subcontract work to China, collect new virus samples from the wild or carry out ‘gain of function’ research.
Medical staff treat patients infected by 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, slammed the ‘absolutely reckless’ decision by NIH
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has previously blasted NIH for ‘lying’ about gain-of-function research and its connection to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director 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, NIH has since admitted that research ‘supported by the NIH in Wuhan did create viruses that gained function or gained in lethality,’ Paul pointed to in an op-ed.
Senior Vice President Justin Goodman of the White Coat Waste Project also echoed calls to defund the grant immediately.
‘The batty taxpayer-funded grant that bankrolled EcoHealth Alliance’s dangerous animal experiments in Wuhan that probably prompted the pandemic should be de-funded, not re-funded,’ Goodman said.
He detailed the work of his organization to ‘first expose’ and end EcoHealth’s collaboration with the Wuhan lab in 2020.
Goodman referenced a recent federal audit revealing how EcoHealth ‘misspent tax dollars.’
He says there is more work to be done in order to hold the ‘reckless, rogue lab contractor’ accountable.
