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US-China relations
ChinaScience

American on WHO team probing Covid-19 origins in China denies his ‘dangerous research’ caused pandemic

  • Scientist defends collaboration with Wuhan lab as yielding ‘direct public health benefits’ for the US, with virus work saving ‘countless lives’
  • But some House lawmakers call for his research group to be barred from receiving federal funds and face criminal investigation

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Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, testifies at a US House of Representatives select subcommittee hearing on the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Getty Images via AFP
Ji Siqiin Washington
A notable scientist who was the lone American citizen on a World Health Organization coronavirus fact-finding mission in China three years ago refuted allegations that his “dangerous research” collaborating with a lab in Wuhan caused the pandemic.
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Grilled by US lawmakers at a House select subcommittee hearing in Washington on Wednesday, Peter Daszak, president of New York-based EcoHealth Alliance, said its work in China “provided direct public health benefits to the American people”.

“Viruses that we identified in bats in China were used by US labs during the Covid pandemic to test drugs, vaccines and therapies that saved countless lives,” said Daszak, a disease ecologist.

Before Wednesday’s hearing, the House panel released a report claiming EcoHealth Alliance funded “dangerous research” at the Wuhan Institute of Virology using US government grants without sufficient oversight.

Amid high tensions between Washington and Beijing, the Wuhan institute has felt the glare of scrutiny in recent years, with some US politicians and intelligence agencies claiming the pandemic resulted from the coronavirus escaping from its laboratory.

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