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.”
The Washington Times has reached out to EcoHealth for this story. The firm has previously 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.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.