The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic recommended EcoHealth Alliance president Dr. Peter Daszak be criminally investigated over his actions ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"[S]erious, systemic weaknesses at the National Institutes of Health that enabled EcoHealth to fund dangerous gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China,” were revealed in a report released Wednesday ahead of the hearing, the House COVID panel said on X prior to sharing some of its key findings.
🚨EcoHealth violated the terms and conditions of its NIH grant by failing to report a potentially dangerous gain-of-function experiment conducted at the WIV.
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) May 1, 2024
Evidence shows that Dr. Daszak was aware of this potentially dangerous research, yet he failed to inform the NIH.
🚨The Trump Administration identified serious concerns with EcoHealth Alliance’s funding of the WIV and instructed NIH to fix the problem. Then, NIH terminated EcoHealth’s grant.
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) May 1, 2024
This intervention likely prevented EcoHealth from continuing to conduct dangerous research.
Read the full report titled “An Evaluation of the Evidence Surrounding EcoHealth Alliance, Inc.’s Research Activities” here: https://t.co/TcXoWtNPoE
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) May 1, 2024
View supporting materials here: https://t.co/pbmYCR8hio
“We have found that EcoHealth was nearly two years late in submitting a routine progress report to NIH, that EcoHealth failed to report, as required, a potentially dangerous experiment conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, that EcoHealth used taxpayer dollars to facilitate risky gain-of-function research, and that Dr. Daszak omitted a material fact regarding his access to unanalyzed virus samples and sequences at the WIV in his successful effort to have his grant reinstated by NIH,” Chairman Brad Wenstrup said in his opening statement.
“Dr. Daszak has been less than cooperative with the Select Subcommittee, he has been slow to produce requested documents, and has regularly played semantics with the definition of gain-of-function research, even in his previous testimony,” he added.
🚨Chairman Wenstrup opens today's hearing with EcoHealth Alliance President Dr. Peter Daszak by breaking down @COVIDSelect's new report:
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) May 1, 2024
"EcoHealth was absolutely conducting gain-of-function research, specifically in Wuhan."
"We have found that EcoHealth was nearly two years… pic.twitter.com/5kBfZKxpNV
The hearing came less than a month after the U.S. Agency for International Development awarded EcoHealth Alliance a grant of more than $4 million in taxpayer money.
