One of the grants, titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence,” outlines the efforts of EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak. The Wuhan bat research included screening thousands of bat samples for novel coronaviruses. People who worked with live animals were also screened.
Daszak was a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic investigation team. So in effect, he was investigating his research project. He has always agreed with the Chinese on the virus origins. Daszak is insistent that the coronavirus could not have come from the nearby lab. But instead originated in wildlife farms in south China. And they eventually ended up in the wet markets.
Under the terms and conditions of the grant approval, there is a section noting that prior to “further altering the mutant viruses”, the NIAID needs to be given a “detailed description of the proposed alterations and supporting evidence for the anticipated phenotypic characteristics of each virus.”
The second grant, “Understanding Risk of Zoonotic Virus Emergence in Emerging Infectious Disease Hotspots of Southeast Asia,” was written in 2019. And was awarded in August 2020.
NIH claims Wuhan bat research not to blame
“The research we supported in China, where coronaviruses are prevalent, sought to understand the behavior of coronaviruses circulating in bats that have the potential to cause widespread disease,” the NIH said in an email statement.
