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EcoHealth Alliance, Dr. Daszak Sanctioned for Coronavirus Gain-of-Function Research

EcoHealth Alliance, Dr. Daszak Sanctioned for Coronavirus Gain-of-Function Research

On Jan. 17, 2025, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced that the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance (EHA) and its former president, Peter Daszak, PhD, have been barred from receiving funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for five years. The sanction was imposed after evidence revealed that EcoHealth Alliance and Daszak violated the terms of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) multi-million dollar research grant by failing to report that the money was being used to conduct risky coronavirus gain-of-function research and experiments.1 2

Victory For National Security and Safety For Citizens Worldwide

U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer issued the following statement on Jan. 17, 2025 in response to the formal debarment of Dr. Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance:

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. 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.3

Secret Gain of Function Research to Make Bat Coronavirses More Infectious

In 2019, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) renewed a $4 million research grant to EcoHealth Alliance for gain-of-function (GoF) research called, “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronovirus Emergence.” The NIH research grant was originally awarded in 2014 to EcoHealth Alliance, and NIH funding of the grant was initially suspended in April 2020. In October 2021, NIH acknowledged that EcoHealth Alliance had violated the terms of the grant by secretly conducting dangerous GoF research modifying novel bat coronaviruses to render them 10,000 times more infectious, and failing to report that fact to NIH.4 5

The U.S. House Oversight Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic issued an interim report in May 2024 regarding federal agency funding of and lack of oversight on risky gain-of-function research. The committee report recommended the debarment of Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance, justifying punitive sanctions after finding that there was “significant evidence” that Daszak “repeatedly violated the terms of the NIH grant award to EcoHealth.”5

At the time, EcoHealth Alliance responded:

[It] is disappointed by HHS’[s] decision today and we will be contesting the proposed 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.6

Dr. Daszak Grilled by Bipartisan U.S. House of Representative Panel

Dr. Daszak was interrogated in the spring of 2024 by a bipartisan U.S. House of Representatives panel holding an investigation into the origin of the sudden emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. Daszak was accused of mismanaging U.S. government grants and providing misleading statements about research and experiments conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China.6

At a May 1, 2024 hearing of the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, chair of the committee Representative Brad Wenstrup questioned Daszak about the potential danger of the coronavirus gain-of-function research. Wenstrup described Daszak as appearing “disingenuous, charging that the EcoHealth Alliance president was “not a responsible steward of the American people’s tax dollars.”7

During the hearing, Daszak repeated the theory that the COVID pandemic started when a host animal infected a person somewhere in China rather than acknowledging evidence that the mutated coronavirus virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), where scientists had been conducting controversial gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses.7

In contrast to Daszak’s testimony, documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request revealed that in 2018, scientists at the WIV had plans to make coronavirus spike proteins capable of infecting human cells that would be “inserted into SARS-CoV backbones.”

EcoHealth Alliance “Deliberately Concealed” Plans of “A Reckless Experiment”

Matt Ridley, PhD, a biologist and science writer, who has covered the lab leak theory, was quoted as concluding that the documents released in 2023 under a FOIA request made by the nonprofit U.S. Right to Know (USRTK) confirmed that the mutated coronavirus responsible for the COVID pandemic most likely escaped from the WIV.8

He said:

This latest [document] leak makes the case for the lab leak almost certain. A reckless experiment, known at the time to be reckless, probably caused the death of millions of people. Scientists and the media conspired to conceal the evidence. Let that sink in.8

Richard Ebright, PhD, a chemical biologist at Rutgers University, remarked that the documents released under FOIA revealed that EcoHealth Alliance “deliberately concealed” plans to use government funding, including U.S. Department of Defense funds, to conduct high risk coronavirus experiments at the WIV in China:

The new documents reveal that EcoHealth Alliance planned to use U.S. Department of Defense funds to perform high-risk virus experiments at WIV at a biosafety level that was inadequate for research with a potential pandemic pathogen… The new documents also reveal that EcoHealth Alliance deliberately concealed these plans—both the plan to perform high-risk experiments at WIV and the plan to perform them using inadequate biosafety protections—from the U.S. Department of Defense in order to improve the chances of receiving funding.8

In the Name of “National Security”

Daszak has received strong support from his friends and colleagues, including pro-mandatory vaccination proponent and vaccine developer Peter Hotez, MD. Hotez offered a “national security” argument for giving EcoHealth Alliance a free pass for using US taxpayer money to conduct secret gain of function (GOF) research that has been  linked to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hotez said:

EcoHealth Alliance is one of the few organizations we have to track the emergence of new and dangerous virus pathogens. If they disappear, our national security suffers.9

The “national security” excuse for why Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance should not be sanctioned was enchoed in Science magazine by one of Daszak’s friends, Boston University professor Gerald Keusch, MD, who was a former director of NIH’s John E. Fogarty International Center. Keusch said, “This escalation is really dangerous to science, for scientists, and for national security.”10

Dr. Keusch, along with David Morens, MD and a number of NIH officials, including Anthony Fauci, MD, then Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases – as well as Peter Hotez – were on email discussions about the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 pandemic that were obtained by the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic during their investigation.11 In a May, 2024 press release, the subcommittee stated:

Evidence obtained by the Select Subcommittee prior to the hearing showed that Dr. Morens—a former top advisor to Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)—deliberately obstructed the Select Subcommittee’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19 to protect Dr. Fauci, unlawfully deleted federal COVID-19 records, and shared nonpublic information about National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant processes with his “best-friend” EcoHealth Alliance President Dr. Peter Daszak.12


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Click here to view References:

1 U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. HHS Formally Debars EcoHealth Alliance, Dr. Peter Daszak After COVID Select Reveals Pandemic-Era Wrongdoing. Jan. 17, 2025.
2 Wolf R. HHS cuts off funding for EcoHealth Alliance in light of COVID Committee evidence. Fox News Jan. 18, 2025.
3 U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. HHS Formally Debars EcoHealth Alliance, Dr. Peter Daszak After COVID Select Reveals Pandemic-Era Wrongdoing. Jan. 17, 2025.
4 Trager R. EcoHealth Alliance fights back against US government funding suspension. Royal Society Chemistry June 5, 2024.
5 Nava, V. HHS bans EcoHealth Alliance and group’s ex-prez from receiving federal funding for 5 years after Wuhan virus experiments. The New York Post Jan. 18, 2025.
6 Kaiser J. Federal officials suspend funding to EcoHealth Alliance, nonprofit entangled in COVID-19 origin debate. Science May 15, 2024.
7 Kaiser J. House lawmakers on both sides grill head of nonprofit that worked with Chinese virologists. Science May 1, 2024.
8 Lardieri A. Is this the smoking gun for the Covid lab leak? Blueprint for creating a ‘SARS-CoV’ virus with an altered spike protein in Wuhan was published in 2018, bombshell new records show. The Daily Mail Dec. 19, 2023.
9 Kaiser J. Federal officials suspend funding to EcoHealth Alliance, nonprofit entangled in COVID-19 origin debate. Science May 15, 2024.
10 Kaiser J. House panel takes Fauci advisor to task for allegedly evading public records law. Science May 23, 2024.
11 Christenson J. House COVID origins panel accuses Fauci advisor of obstructing probe, subpoenas him for public testimony. New York Post May 8. 2024.
12 U.S. Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Hearing Wrap Up: Dr. Fauci’s Top Advisor Held Accountable for COVID-19 Federal Records Violations, Undermining NIH Operations. May 23, 2024.

14 Responses

    1. Im sure there’s a booby prize waiting for him. gotta get the government working correctly first.

      Bobby Kennedy has to get confirmed first so he can get in the HHS and start having things examined by people he appoints! it’s getting exciting

    2. Biden pardoned him. However, my brother informed me today (from one of his sources) that the pardon may be moot because of Biden’s deteriorated mental condition at the time he gave the pardon….claiming Biden was mentally incompetent to give that pardon. That may hold up by SCOTUS. We will see.

      1. My first ALS symptom occurred in 2016, but was diagnosed in 2018. I had severe symptoms ranging from shortness of breath, balance problems, couldn’t walk without a walker or a power chair, i had difficulty swallowing and fatigue. I was given medications which helped but only for a short burst of time, then I decided to try alternative measures and began on ALS Formula treatment from Aknni herbs centre, It has made a tremendous difference for me (Visit ww w. aknniherbscentre.c om). I had improved walking balance, increased appetite, muscle strength, improved eyesight and others.

    1. because a democrat government would have rushed to try and convict them so they could be pardoned and never held accountable. try to not question Gods timing.

  1. the money seems to be where all the corruption can be stopped. this is a wonderful moment in time. wait till the dog around in the CDC and vaccine industry and find all the corruption there. it’s going to be epic

  2. Would that be considered a bioweapon? Gain of function is to infect many people as fast as possible and be contagious. Don’t we have labs in the usa as well trying to create these bioweapons. Pretty evil if you ask me.

  3. Why would any nation want to conduct this risky research in a lab in a potential enemy’s lab, where the information could end up in the wrong hands? Surely it’s bad enough to do it in your own country, let alone risk the whole world’s security by doing it somewhere you can’t guarantee either the results or their eventual destination.

  4. “Justice for the American people” was NOT served today. A 5 year ban from receiving government funding for research does not begin to serve justice to those whose health will never recover from the effects of Covid, who still suffer from Long Covid, were coerced into taking a “vaccine” that did nothing to prevent transmission or infection but did come with its own set of risks and side effects and especially not to those who lost their lives to an entirely man-made pandemic. The icing on this disgusting cake is that the vaccine boosters are still encouraged despite the fact that apparently no human trials are done prior to their release.

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