The federal government came down hard on EcoHealth Alliance Wednesday, announcing it has stopped federal funding for the firm that helped pay for research at China’s Wuhan virus lab that’s been linked to the initial outbreak of COVID-19.
The Department of Health and Human Services said EcoHealth “lacks the present responsibility” to be able to continue receiving millions of dollars in research grant money.
Deputy Assistant Secretary Henrietta K. Brisbon said she has suspended the firm and has proposed a permanent debarment.
“HHS believes there is adequate evidence in the record for this debarment cause and that immediate action is necessary to protect the public interest,” she wrote in a letter to EcoHealth President Peter Daszak.
The move was cheered by both Democrats and Republicans who said the firm failed to properly monitor the labs that were spending taxpayers’ money and bungled their reporting obligations to the government.
Some of those bungles stemmed from EcoHealth’s use of taxpayer money to fund research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is based near where the coronavirus pandemic is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China.
Some U.S. agencies have said the virus that shut much of the world down and killed millions of people leaked from the lab, though other researchers still favor a natural cause for the virus’s evolution.
“EcoHealth Alliance and Dr. Peter Daszak should never again receive a single penny from the U.S. taxpayer,” said Rep. Brad Wenstrup, chairman of the House select subcommittee exploring the pandemic. “EcoHealth facilitated gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China without proper oversight, willingly violated multiple requirements of its multimillion-dollar National Institutes of Health grant, and apparently made false statements to the NIH. These actions are wholly abhorrent, indefensible, and must be addressed with swift action.”
In a statement, EcoHealth said it was “disappointed” and will contest the debarment.
“We disagree strongly with the decision and will present evidence to refute each of these allegations and to show that NIH’s continued support of EcoHealth Alliance is in the public interest,” the firm said.
EcoHealth has consistently denied that it was funding risky gain-of-function research at Wuhan.
The White Coat Waste Project, a watchdog group that challenges U.S. government spending on animal research, said it was “thrilled” that the firm is being punished.
“Since 2020, we’ve been leading efforts with lawmakers to defund EcoHealth because our investigations have documented how they’ve raked in $60 million of new taxpayers’ cash just since the pandemic began, including $4 million just last month,” said Anthony Bellotti, the group’s president.
The Wuhan lab itself was barred from federal research funding last year.
Ms. Brisbon, in her letter to EcoHealth, listed dozens of communications and documents she said informed the suspension and the proposed debarment.
A key issue seems to be the government’s contention that EcoHealth misled the National Institutes of Health about why it was late in reporting on how the Wuhan lab was using its money in 2019, just ahead of what is believed to be the start of the pandemic.
The government says the delayed report would have flagged potentially risky research that should have prompted a secondary review to make sure the work was safe.
Democrats, while saying it was right to shut down EcoHealth’s federal funding, said questions about the firm don’t mean U.S. money helped cause the pandemic. Democrats fear a broader attack on U.S. research spending based on emotions over the pandemic.
“No evidence provided to the Select Subcommittee has indicated that the work performed under EcoHealth Alliance‘s grant, including at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, led to the creation of SARS-CoV-2,” Rep. Raul Ruiz, California Democrat, said earlier this month at a hearing with Dr. Daszak.
In that hearing, Dr. Daszak said he had worked with Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli, dubbed the “Bat Woman” for her role in researching bat coronaviruses, but he rejected the accusation that the Wuhan lab spawned the pandemic virus.
“There is zero evidence it emerged from a lab,” Dr. Daszak said, but later changed his stance to say it was “possible but extremely unlikely.”