NIH Officials Allowed EcoHealth Alliance To Self-Police Risky Gain-Of-Function Experiments In Wuhan
A cache of newly released communications reveals that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) allowed nonprofit genetic engineering firm EcoHealth Alliance to police its own risky research on bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, China.
According to FOIA documents obtained by WhiteCoatWaste, The Intercept, and the House Energy & Commerce Committee, NIH officials were concerned about risky research being done at the Wuhan Institute of Virology on a US grant.
As The Intercept notes:
Detailed notes on NIH communications obtained by The Intercept show that beginning in May 2016, agency staff had an unusual exchange with Peter Daszak, the head of EcoHealth Alliance, about experiments his group was planning to conduct on coronaviruses under an NIH grant called “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.” The notes were taken by congressional staff who transcribed the emails.
EcoHealth was entering the third year of the five-year, $3.1 million grant that included research with the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other partners. In a 2016 progress report, the group described to NIH its plans to carry out two planned experiments infecting humanized mice with hybrid viruses, known as “chimeras.”
NIH staff members Jenny Greer - a grants management specialist, and Erik Stemmy - a program officer in charge of COVID research, both expressed concern over the risky experiments - telling EcoHealth that their experiments "appear to involve research covered under the pause," referring to an Obama-era moratorium on gain-of-function research that could be reasonably assumed to make MERS and SARS viruses more transmissible in mammals.
One of EcoHealth's experiments involved using genetic engineering to create chimeric MERS viruses, while another experiment used bat-virus-derived chimears related to SARS. According to the report, the researchers infected humanized mice with the altered viruses.
Disturbingly, after the two NIH staff members voiced concerns over Gain-of-Function research, the agency allowed EcoHealth to dictate its own definition of GoF, exonerating itself of doing 'risky' research. The NIH inserted several obscure reporting requirements suggested by EcoHealth that moved the goalposts of what constitutes GoF.
Of note, The Intercept writes that while the experiments demonstrate a lack of oversight and present dangers to public health, "none of the viruses involved in the work are related closely enough to SARS-CoV-2 to have sparked the pandemic," according to several scientists contacted by the outlet.
https://republicans-energycommerce.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2021.10.27-Letter-to-NIH.pdf
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/nih-officials-allowed-ecohealth-alliance-self-police-risky-gain-function-experiments-wuhan