HHS cuts funding to EcoHealth Alliance in light of Covid committee evidence
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has suspended EcoHealth Alliance Inc. and its former president, Dr. Peter Daszak, officially barring both the organization and the doctor from receiving federal funding for five years. EcoHealth did not report the dangerous use experiments to the government, which ultimately led to the ban. in the Prohibition notice HHS officials wrote to Daszak that the measures are “necessary” to protect the U.S. government’s business interests.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement that he welcomed the announcement, calling it “justice for the American people.” Comer went on to accuse “bad actor” EcoHealth and its “corrupt former president” of using taxpayer dollars to conduct “dangerous applied research in China.”
In May, the House Oversight Committee’s subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic released an interim report detailing its findings on government funding and oversight of applied research.
Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, as members of a World Health Organization team visit the facility in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei province, to investigate the origins of the Covid-19 coronavirus. . (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
HHS will move the president of the EcoHealth Alliance to court for not complying with grant procedures
The subcommittee said in its report that it found substantial evidence that Daszak “repeatedly violated the terms of the NIH grant awarded to EcoHealth.” In light of its findings, the committee ultimately recommended that EcoHealth and Deszak be formally suspended and barred from receiving “any” federal funding.
In addition, the committee accused EcoHealth of failing to submit an annual research update in August 2021, two years after the September 2019 deadline.
Peter Daszak (R), Tia Fischer (L) and others arrive in February at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China’s central Hubei province, where a World Health Organization (WHO) team is investigating the origins of the Covid-19 coronavirus. 3, 2021. (HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images)
“Dr. Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance, is not a good steward of American taxpayer dollars and should never receive funding from the American taxpayer,” said committee chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-O., in a May 2024 memo.
“Dr. Daszak and his company conducted dangerous practice research at the (Wuhan Institute of Virology), willfully violated multi-million dollar NIH funding contracts and endangered US national security. The American people are to blame.”
The suspension for EcoHealth Alliance expires on May 14, 2029, and Dr. Daszak’s suspension expires six days later on May 20, 2029.
EcoHealth Alliance President Dr. Peter Daszak speaks during a House Select Subcommittee hearing on the coronavirus pandemic on Capitol Hill on May 1, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnick/Getty Images)
Since 2008, the disgraced EcoHealth Alliance has reaped nearly $100 million in taxpayer funds.
In May, it was revealed that the research institute has received nearly 100 million dollars from the federal government in the past decade and a half.
In the year From 2008 to 2024, the U.S. government has provided EcoHealth Alliance with an estimated $94.3 million in taxpayer funds through contracts, grants, direct payments, loans and other financial support, according to Fox News Digital Government Spending data at USAspending.gov. .
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A spokesperson for EcoHealth did not respond to a request for comment.
Kyle Morris contributed to this report.
