The federal government formally cut off taxpayer funding for nonprofit group tied to risky coronavirus research in Wuhan, China after initiating the proceedings eight months ago due to scrutiny from a congressional panel.
The Department of Health and Human Services wrote letters Friday notifying EcoHealth Alliance and its president, Dr. Peter Daszak, that he and the organization are formally debarred, meaning they will be prohibited from receiving taxpayer funding for five years.
In the letters, HHS said Daszak and EcoHealth lack “the present responsibility to participate in United States Federal Government procurement and nonprocurement programs” and the debarment is necessary to “to protect the Federal Government’s business interests.”
National Review has reached out to EcoHealth for comment.
Attached to the letters are action memos listing all of the evidence HHS used in determining that EcoHealth and Daszak should be debarred. The action memo for Daszak indicates that EcoHealth terminated his employment effective on January 6 after he led the organization beginning in 2009.
Daszak and EcoHealth’s debarment periods will include the time when they were suspended from getting taxpayer funding during the formal debarment proceedings. The debarments will end in May 2029 with the eight month suspensions factored in.
During the suspension period, several government agencies paused funding for EcoHealth or did not follow through with proposed grants to the nonprofit because of the debarment proceedings, as NR previously reported.
“Justice for the American people was served today. Bad actor EcoHealth Alliance and its corrupt former President, Dr. Peter Daszak, were formally debarred by HHS for using taxpayer funds to facilitate dangerous gain-of-function research in China,” said Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.)
“Today’s decision is not only a victory for the U.S. taxpayer, but also for American national security and the safety of citizens worldwide.”
The debarment follows sustained scrutiny from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus pandemic, a congressional panel that comprehensively investigated the origins of Covid-19 and the results of pandemic-era government policies. Former representative Brad Wenstrup (R., Ohio) was chairman of the subcommittee and oversaw its investigation into EcoHealth’s collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology on risky bat coronavirus research.
“Better late than never,” said Antony Bellotti, president of watchdog organization White Coat Waste Project, which has spent years sounding the alarm about EcoHealth Alliance and Daszak.
Bellotti add that “we’re thrilled that Ecohealth and Daszak are finally being held accountable for lying, wasting taxpayers’ money, breaking the law, abusing animals, and threatening public health.”
The Covid-19 subcommittee’s investigation into Daszak culminated with a contentious public hearing where members of both parties pressed him on EcoHealth’s lack of transparency regarding the Wuhan lab research, especially its failure to submit a required transparency report until two years after the fact. Lawmakers also grilled Daszak on other issues such as a proposed DARPA grant involving Chinese research and his private communications with senior National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases official Dr. David Morens.
Daszak’s testimony came on the same day congressional lawmakers recommended he face a criminal investigation for making false statements to the government. At the conclusion of its investigation, the subcommittee also accused Daszak of obstruction and receiving internal NIH information through his communications with Morens.
For those who believe the lab-leak theory of the case, the Wuhan lab is the location where coronavirus originated. The subcommittee determined that Covid-19 most likely came from the Wuhan facility, a point of view that social media platforms censored when the virus raged.