The Department of Defense provided a $3 million multi-year grant to EcoHealth Alliance, the firm at the focus of the Wuhan lab leak theory.
According to USA Spending, the official source for spending statistics for the United States government, the Department of Defense will provide $3 million to EcoHealth Alliance beginning December 12, 2022 and ending December 11, 2025.
The multimillion-dollar award will be used by EcoHealth Alliance to “lower the possibility of viral spillover from animals in the Philippines.”
The government financing was described in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA), commonly known as Assistance Listings, as part of scientific study targeted at “combating weapons of mass destruction.”
The program’s goal is as follows:
“To encourage and promote basic, applied, and advanced research at academic or research institutions, nonprofit organizations, and private businesses that increase fundamental knowledge and understanding of the sciences with a focus on finding fresh approaches to combatting or avoiding the use of WMD.”
The money was supplied directly by the Defense Threat Reduction Entity (DTRA), a Department of Defense agency.
The DTRA’s mission is to “provide cross-cutting solutions to allow the Department of Defense, the United States Government, and international partners to Deter all strategic attacks against the United States and its allies; Reduce, prevent, and counter WMD and other emerging threats; and Prevail in crisis and conflict against WMD-armed adversaries.”
EcoHealth Alliance has received federal support since 2008, according to USA Spending. The US government donated roughly $25 million to EcoHealth Alliance in 2020. EcoHealth Alliance got $79.4 million in total, roughly 48% of which came from Assistance Listings with the goal of “combatting weapons of mass destruction.” The DTRA has supplied more than 52% of EcoHealth Alliance’s total government financing.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, granted EcoHealth Alliance $3.3 million in funding over five years in September.
The NIH grant will go toward a study that will look at the “prospect for future bat coronavirus emergence in Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam.”
EcoHealth Alliance’s Peter Daszak previously performed contentious bat coronavirus research at China’s state-run Wuhan Institute of Virology. EcoHealth Alliance has been accused of conducting gain-of-function research at the infamous Chinese biosafety level 4 lab. Some have blamed the alleged Wuhan lab leak on EcoHealth Alliance’s research.
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