Architect of Cash Transfers at Wuhan Lab Silent as Pushed to Record COVID-19

A prominent scientist whose organization funded coronavirus research in China and sought to dismiss the theory of a COVID-19 lab leak declined to answer questions about his efforts on Tuesday.

Peter Daszak, a British-American-Ukrainian zoologist who heads the EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit organization that sent US taxpayer-funded grants to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for coronavirus research before 2020, was a prominent health expert who repeatedly claimed that COVID-19 did not emerge from the institute and insisted which was of natural origin. Although several U.S. government agencies have assessed that the virus likely leaked from a lab, Daszak declined to answer any questions Tuesday from the Daily Caller News Foundation about his history of denying that claim or his affiliations to the institute.

“Do you agree with the US government’s assessments that COVID-19 leaked from a lab? Do you regret sending money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology?” the DCNF asked Daszak as he left a closed-door meeting with members of the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on the Origins of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Daszak left briefly before being ushered back into the committee room by his attorneys to avoid questions from the DCNF.

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DCNF was later told by subcommittee staff to “get away” from the room, apparently so Daszak could avoid questions.

“Has your research prevented any pandemics since or before COVID-19?” the DCNF asked Daszak before the door closed.

In February 2020, Daszak was a co-signatory of a letter with other health experts published in The Lancet, a leading medical journal, that rejected the idea that COVID-19 emerged from a laboratory.

“We sign this statement in solidarity with all scientists and health professionals in China who continue to save lives and protect global health during the challenge of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said the letter, which also said “[w]We unite in strongly condemning conspiracy theories that suggest that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin. Scientists from several countries have published i analyzed genomes of the causative agent … and overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife.”

Daszak later joined a team of scientists, under the World Health Organization (WHO), that traveled to Wuhan in China to investigate the virus. Daszak’s team “discounted claims that the virus originated in a laboratory, saying the possibility was so unlikely that it was not worth further investigation,” according to a interview by Daszak for The New York Times after his trip, a finding that was complemented by his team’s report.

However, many observers expressed concern about Daszak’s potential conflict of interest because of his organization, EcoHealth Alliance, which previously worked with the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

EcoHealth Alliance had done this before collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, incl financing his research with US taxpayer dollars received through grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Daszak, in media appearances after his study, claimed there was “zero evidence that this virus came out of a lab,” according to a interview with CBS 60 Minutes in May 2020.

Further investigations by US government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Energy, concluded that the virus likely emerged from a laboratory in China, according to multiple reports. Some US intelligence agencies, however, claimed that the virus did not emerge from a laboratory.

EcoHealth Alliance and Democratic staff on the committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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