Following new reports tying Dr. Anthony Fauci and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) to EcoHealth Alliance, a group which funneled taxpayer money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) to conduct dangerous experiments on bats and coronaviruses, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and her colleagues are demanding the agencies end grant funding to EcoHealth.
“Because EcoHealth broke federal laws, withheld evidence, and conducted dangerous research in unsafe conditions, this group should never be trusted to put its hands on taxpayer dollars or bats ever again,” said Ernst. “Let’s defund EcoHealth and launch a real scientific investigation to find out once and for all what was really happening in Wuhan, China so the same mistakes are never repeated again.”
The NSF recently awarded an additional $1 million grant to EcoHealth Alliance for Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention, and a second grant of over $263,800 is in the works for the organization. The NIH also announced a five-year grant beginning with an award of $653,392 to conduct more studies on coronaviruses from bats. This funding continues despite EcoHealth’s repeated refusals to divulge information about what was really going on in Wuhan, China.
Ernst led letters to the NIH and NSF alongside fellow Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), and Representatives Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.) and Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) demanding the agencies end their grant relationship with EcoHealth. Read the letter to NIH here. Read the letter to NSF here.
