US scientist who worked with China lab targeted in coronavirus leak allegations barred from funding
- American agency accuses disease ecologist of taking part in ‘improper conduct’ as head of group that collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology
- Debarment ensures he ‘never again receives a single cent from US taxpayers’, says House Republican who chairs panel overseeing the matter
Peter Daszak, a prominent American disease ecologist who collaborated with a Chinese lab targeted in coronavirus leak allegations, has had his federal funding suspended and faces being cut off from working with the US government for years.
The Department of Health and Human Services said the suspension and proposed debarment took effect on Tuesday. The move came a week after it suspended federal funding for New York-based EcoHealth Alliance, led by Daszak.
In a letter sent to Daszak on Tuesday, the agency said “the alleged conduct of EHA is imputed to you, because during all or part of the time relevant, you participated in, knew of, or had reason to know of EHA’s improper conduct, through your role as the president of EHA” and as the project director and principal investigator of grants for the research project on “understanding the risk of bat coronavirus emergence”.
While a ban usually lasts less than three years, it could be lengthened or shortened “as the circumstances warrant”, the department added. It also said Daszak could contest the action within 30 days.
Daszak came under scrutiny for collaborating with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The lab has been at the centre of yet-to-be-proved claims that a laboratory leak caused the Chinese city’s first Covid-19 outbreak at the end of 2019.
