A congressional investigation found that EcoHealth Alliance and Daszak facilitated gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, without proper oversight.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has formally banned pandemic research nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance and its former president, Peter Daszak, from receiving federal funding for five years.
The House Oversight Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic revealed the decision on Jan. 17, providing a letter from HHS to EcoHealth Alliance—along with a separate letter to Daszak.
“After considering the information in the administrative record in this matter, including the information presented in the above-mentioned responses, I have determined that a period of debarment for Dr. Daszak is necessary to protect the Federal Government’s business interests,” an HHS official, whose name was redacted, wrote in one of the letters. A nearly identical justification featured in the other letter.
The subcommittee said its investigation found that EcoHealth Alliance and Daszak facilitated gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, without proper oversight and violated multiple requirements of their multimillion-dollar National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant.
Gain-of-function research consists of manipulating viruses under laboratory conditions to make them more virulent so they can be studied more effectively by scientists. The practice is highly controversial as it results in more lethal viruses that could wreak havoc on humanity if they escape the lab, as some contend—including U.S. intelligence agencies—the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic did.
In a report released in May 2024 that detailed the investigation’s findings, the subcommittee recommended that EcoHealth Alliance and Daszak should be debarred and criminally investigated. Subsequently, HHS suspended funding for EcoHealth and proposed debarment, with the decision to debar, announced on Jan. 17, marking a milestone in the investigation.
“Justice for the American people was served today,“ Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a Jan. 17 statement. ”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.”
EcoHealth Alliance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision. However, in a number of rebuttals posted on its webpage, the company denied that its money contributed to gain-of-function research and said it believes the virus behind COVID-19 originated in nature rather than in a lab.
“The bat coronavirus research conducted by EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology could not have started the pandemic,” the company wrote in a June 2024 statement.
In a more recent response to the subcommittee’s final report, EcoHealth said it was “deeply disappointed” in the accusations leveled against the company and called the investigation politically motivated.
“Willful obfuscation and fearmongering over important scientific research, which extends well beyond damaging attacks on EcoHealth Alliance to unwarranted attacks on respected scientific and public health entities around the country, will do nothing to predict, prepare or prevent the next pandemic,” the group wrote.