Wuhan-linked group violated federal law after Biden resumed funding.

The Controversial EcoHealth Alliance Resumes Risky Research with Federal Funding

The EcoHealth Alliance, a group at the center of the COVID-19 lab leak theory, has allegedly violated federal law by celebrating the Biden administration’s decision to resume funding its risky research into Chinese bat coronaviruses. The National Institutes of Health has granted the group $2.3 million to continue its research, which a growing number of intelligence agencies and virologists believe contributed to the pandemic outbreak.

Violation of Federal Transparency Law

EcoHealth Alliance announced the grant in a press release on Monday, but failed to disclose the financial terms of the project, which could violate federal transparency law. Senator Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) and the White Coat Waste Project filed complaints on Thursday, calling on the National Institutes of Health to end taxpayer funding of EcoHealth’s “dangerous experiments before the public’s health is put at risk, possibly for a second time.”

• Ernst noted the group’s “well-documented and persistent refusal to comply with federal laws.”
• EcoHealth Alliance violated the Stevens Amendment in at least three statements since August 2022 in discussing its taxpayer-funded work, according to the White Coat Waste Project.
• The renewed grant comes with a bevy of new restrictions, including a prohibition on conducting any research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and collecting any new viral samples from Chinese bats.

Republican Lawmakers Slam Biden Administration

Despite the new restrictions, Republican lawmakers slammed the Biden administration on Monday for renewing EcoHealth Alliance’s grant. “It’s absolutely reckless that the NIH has renewed a grant for EcoHealth Alliance given their negligence and the breach of their contract with the NIH on the coronavirus research done at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” said Rep. Morgan Griffith (R., Va.), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Controversy Surrounding EcoHealth Alliance

EcoHealth Alliance is no stranger to controversy. In January, government investigators issued a scathing report finding that EcoHealth waited two years to report that it created boosted bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab that were far more infectious than their natural counterparts. Former President Donald Trump suspended its Chinese coronavirus research in April 2020 amid growing concerns about the gain-of-function experiments it conducted alongside the Wuhan Institute of Virology before the pandemic.

At the onset of the pandemic, Democrats and the media dismissed the theory that COVID-19 leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology as a baseless conspiracy. But proponents have been vindicated in the years since, as circumstantial evidence has accumulated suggesting the virus leaked from the Chinese lab. The Energy Department admitted in February that COVID-19 likely emerged in China from a lab leak. The FBI also said that same month that the lab leak theory was “most likely.” And in March, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law to declassify intelligence on the origins of the pandemic.

EcoHealth Alliance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.