US Suspends EcoHealth backing Over Wuhan laboratory Compliance

Authorized by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

U.S. officials have cut off surviving to a nonprofit that funneled government money to a laboratory in China located in the same city where the first COVID-19 cases appeared.

Peter Dazak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance, Testifies before the choice Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in Washington, on May 1, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), the nonprofit, “did not adequately monitor” compliance from the Wuhan laboratory with the terms and conditions of a grant from the U.S. National Institutes of wellness (NIH), Henrietta Brisbon, a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of wellness and Human Services, the NIH’s parent agency, said in a May 15 letter to EcoHealth president Peter Dazak. Officials besides found that the subaward to Wuhan nicked requirements that would make the grant in compliance with national law and regulations.

“Given the issues respecting the management of EHA’s grant awards and credits, I have determined that the immediate suspension of EHA is essential to defend the public interest,” Ms. Brisbon added later.

EcoHealth, which is based in the United States, passed more than $1 million to the Wuhan lab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, over the years to survey bat coronaviruses.

In 2019, the experiments were dated a more virulent version of a bat virus in mice, according to an authoritative study for 2019 that was not consecrated to the U.S. government by EcoHealth until 2021.

U.S. officials then asked for laboratory notebooks and another files respecting the testing. EcoHealth officials said they did not have the files, but had forwarded the request to the Wuhan lab. Wuhan officials never provided the files, according to U.S. and EcoHealth officials.

EcoHealth facilitated gain-of-function investigation in Wuhan, China without appropriate oversight, willingly violated multiple requirements of its multimillion-dolar National Institutes of wellness grant, and seemingly made false statements to the NIH,” Rep. Brad Westrup (R-Ohio) said in a statement. “These actions are entirely abhorrent, indefensible, and must be addressed with swift action. EcoHealth’s immediate foundation suspension and future deprivation is not only a victim for the U.S. taxpayer, but besides for American national safety and the safety of citizens worldwide.”

EcoHealth & Dr. Dazak facilitated gain-of-function investigation in China without appropriate overight & willingly violated multiple requirements of @NIH grants.

They should never again receive a single penny from the U.S. taxpayer.

Read president @RepBradWestrup's full message pic.twitter.com/Jw9VQVVBIf

— choice Subject on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) May 15, 2024

Dr. Westrup, president of the home choice Subject on the Coronavirus Pandemic, release a study on May 1 recommending national practitioners analyse Mr. Dazak overviolations of the grant terms.

Dr. Westrup, for instance, noted that EcoHealth blamed the hold in providing the authoritative study on being “locked out” of the NIH’s system, but that a offensive audit by the government uncovered no evidence supporting that claim.

Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), the ranking associate of the subcommittee, said in a message that he welcomed the suspension of surviving to EcoHealth.

“Every recipe of national payer foundation has an work to meet the utmost standards of transparency and accountability to the American public,” he said. “EcoHealth Alliance’s failure to do so is simply a departure from the longstanding legacy of good religion partnerships between NIH and national grants to advance discipline and the public interest, which recalls essential for the continued work of prevention and preparation for future Threats to our nation’s public health.”

Mr. Dazak, who holds a doctorate in parasitic infectious diseases, told the subcommittee in a fresh proceeding that “in all of our federally funded projects, we have managed an open, transparent communication with agency staff” and “rapidly provided information critical to public wellness and agriculture.”

EcoHealth presently has 3 grants being funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, including a grant to experience on bats with antibodies against the Nipah virus could be re-infected in laboratory experiments.

The Department of wellness and Human Services (HHS) is suspending all surviving to EcoHealth and promoting the nonprofit be debarred, or incapable to receive backing for a period of time that could last years or even decades.

“The dimension of debarment, if yet impposed, will be based on the seriousness of the case for deprivation,” Ms. Brisbon said.

EcoHealth has 30 days to competition the findings from the HHS.

“EcoHealth Alliance is disappointed by HHS’ decision present and we will be connecting the proposed debarment,” a spokesperson for the organization late The Epoch Times in an email. “We disagree powerfully with the decision and will present evidence to reflect each of these claims and to show that NIH’s continued support of EcoHealth Alliance is in the public interest.”

The HHS inspector general said previously that both NIH and EcoHealth officials failed to decently monitor experiments done under the grant.

The NIH, for example, did not make certain the authoritative study was submitted in a timely manner, the watchdog said.

EcoHealth, the watchdog added, should have submitted the study by the end of September 2019 but did not do so until August 2021.

The HHS previously debarred the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) from receiving U.S. payer funds over its failure to supply the requested materials.

The debarment, announced in September 2023, is for 10 years.

“The NIH determined that WIV may have conducted an experimentation yielding a level of viral activity which was large than permitted under the terms of the grant,” Ms. Brisbon said in a letter to the lab’s manager at the time.

The lab’s refusal to hand over notebooks and another materials means the determination is unlimited, she said. “As dry,” she gate, “there is hazard that WIV does not only previously violated, but is presently violating, and will proceed to Violate, protocols of the NIH on biosafety.”

Correct. But further accountability is needed. Both for EcoHealth and for EcoHealth’s enablers.

— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) May 15, 2024