Quick Update on Researcher Linked to Covid Lab Leak

Dr. Peter Daszak of EcoHealth barred from all US funding

Weeks of blows to EcoHealth, the US-based organization that worked with China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) for years prior to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, culminated yesterday with its president, Dr. Peter Daszak, being barred from all sources of federal funding. Additionally, the Biden Administration didn’t rule out a permanent ban on federal funding to Daszak, according to The Hill. (1)

A letter from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) held Daszak responsible for not properly monitoring WIV’s work with coronavirus as well as not reporting China’s risky research to its funding agency, the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

HHS cited Daszak’s failure to inform NIH that the Wuhan lab had created a virus “that was stronger than permissible thresholds,” violating the terms of EcoHealth’s grant, The Hill reported. (1)

Benjamin Mueller reported May 15 in the New York Times that among the lapses in reporting to NIH was “EcoHealth’s failure to promptly report findings…