HHS bans EcoHealth Alliance and group’s ex-prez from receiving federal funding for 5 years after Wuhan virus experiments
New York PostJAN 18
US Debars EcoHealth Alliance Over Alleged COVID-Era Safety Violations
Above: Dr. Peter Daszak speaks during a House Select Subcommittee hearing on the pandemic on Capitol Hill on May 1, 2024, in Washington, DC. Image copyright: Andrew Harnik/Staff/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The Facts
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Friday formally barred EcoHealth Alliance and its former president, Peter Daszak, from receiving federal funding for five years, following an eight-month investigation into their research activities.
EcoHealth Alliance, which received 84% of its $16.4M budget from federal grants in 2024, is accused of violating multiple requirements of its National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant by failing to report gain-of-function experiments that reportedly made coronaviruses 10K times more infectious in lab mice.
The research involved collaboration with China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), allegedly through a $3.7M NIH grant — awarded in 2014 and renewed in 2019 — that saw WIV receive over $500K for studying coronaviruses in bats. EcoHealth, however, claims that the money wasn't used for that end.
The Spin
Narrative A
EcoHealth Alliance has long been a good steward of federal funding and made major advances in understanding disease emergence and prevention. There's no evidence that the organization has ever misused public money or conducted actual gain-of-function research. This is a political decision that represents the very performative nonsense that will harm America's ability to track dangerous pathogens.
Narrative B
Though their research hasn't been directly linked to the pandemic outbreak, COVID likely emerged from NIH-funded contentious bat virus research conducted by EcoHealth's collaborators in Wuhan without proper oversight. This debarment represents justice for American taxpayers and protects national security, as the organization's repeated violations of grant requirements and lack of transparency demonstrate it can't be trusted with federal funds.
Narrative C
That EcoHealth Alliance has been disbarred means little to the actual issues behind the origins of the pandemic, as such a decision neither prevents the NIH from funding dangerous gain-of-function studies nor tightens rules on the genetic enhancement of pathogens that still takes place in labs in America and abroad. One can only hope that the incoming Trump administration will address just that, and, if so, leave an important legacy for humanity.