House COVID Oversight panel calls for EcoHealth president to be debarred, not receive US funding

The GOP-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic recommended Wednesday that EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak be debarred and that the organization not receive anymore federal funding. 

“EcoHealth Alliance President Dr. Peter Daszak is not a good steward of U.S. taxpayer dollars and should never again receive funding from the U.S. taxpayer," said panel Chairman Brad Wenstrup. "Dr. Daszak and his organization conducted dangerous gain-of-function research at the [Wuhan Institute of Virology], willfully violated the terms of a multi-million-dollar NIH grant, and placed U.S. national security at risk."

EchoHealth told Just the News in a letter last month that that it did not support gain-of-function research at the lab in Wuhan, where COVID-19 was first detected, and that "any assertion to the contrary are based either on misinterpretation, or willful misrepresentation of the actual research conducted."

Wenstrup, an Ohio Republican, called for Daszak's removal at a subcommittee hearing Wednesday in which he released a report that alleges EcoHealth used taxpayer dollars to fund gain-of-function research at the lab. 

In gain-of-function research, scientists alter a virus to try to gain knowledge about how the virus functions and what it might do next. However, such research is risky if the virus is leaked or perhaps altered and boosted and as a result becomes more powerful. 

"Dr. Daszak and his organization conducted gain-of-function research at the WIV, willfully violated the terms of a multi-million-dollar NIH grant, and placed U.S. national security at risk," Wenstrup also said.