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, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
As for the total number of taxpayer dollars given by the federal government to EcoHealth Alliance since the start of the pandemic, Dr. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University and a harsh critic of NIH, placed the number at upwards of $50 million.
"The U.S.-government has provided more than $50 million to EcoHealth just since the start of the pandemic, with most of that $50 million earmarked for the same kinds of reckless virus discovery and virus enhancement research that likely caused pandemic," Ebright said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Government agencies who gave the most funding to EcoHealth, according to Ebright, are the United States Agency for International Development, the Department of Defense and NIH.
Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services implemented an immediate, government-wide suspension of all funds allocated to EcoHealth.
HHS made the decision, citing evidence included in the House COVID Select Subcommittee’s staff-level report on the nonprofit. According to HHS, EcoHealth willfully violated the terms of a multimillion-dollar NIH grant.
At the time, a spokesperson for EcoHealth Alliance told Fox News Digital that it was "disappointed by HHS' decision."
"We disagree strongly with the decision and will present evidence to refute each of these allegations and to show that NIH's continued support of EcoHealth Alliance is in the public interest," the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Peter Daszak, right, and other members of the World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus, leave the Hubei Center for animal disease control and prevention in Wuhan on February 2, 2021. (HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images)
Following the commencement of debarment proceedings, an EcoHealth Alliance spokesperson told Fox News that the U.S.-based nonprofit "did not support ‘gain-of-function’ research at WIV" and that any "assertions to the contrary are based either on misinterpretation, or willful misrepresentation of the actual research conducted."
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"Because the SARS-related research conducted by EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology dealt with bat coronaviruses that had never been shown to infect people, let alone cause significant morbidity and/or mortality in humans, by definition it was not gain-of-function research," the spokesperson added. "The fact is that the bat coronavirus research conducted by EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology could not have started the COVID-19 pandemic."
Kyle Morris covers politics for Fox News. Story tips can be sent via email and on X: @RealKyleMorris.
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