Lawmakers criticize NIH grant renewal for bat coronavirus study at Wuhan lab-linked EcoHealth as a disastrous collaboration.

Lawmakers have expressed outrage over the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) decision to re-activate a controversial federal grant to EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit organization that conducted coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. The Chinese facility has come under scrutiny for its work on dangerous bat coronaviruses. The renewed grant, amounting to roughly $2.3 million in taxpayer funding, will help EcoHealth Alliance study “the risk of bat coronavirus spillover emergence.” However, the organization is expressly forbidden from conducting any research in China and is banned from collecting any new samples of bats or humans.

Under the terms of the grant, EcoHealth Alliance will receive a total of $4,325,005 over a four-year period via NIH’s National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases. Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health, called the news “shocking and disappointing.” EcoHealth Alliance is currently the recipient of 17 active U.S. government grants totaling more than $50 million.

Despite concerns over the reinstated grant, EcoHealth Alliance president Peter Daszak praised the move, saying the funding will help the non-profit conduct work that will “benefit public health.” However, molecular biologist Richard Ebright disagreed, calling the grant reinstatement a “show of contempt” from NIH officials toward Congress and the public. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) also expressed alarm at seeing the suspension lifted on the EcoHealth grant, saying it was “absolutely batty” to give the organization another penny of taxpayer money.