ORIGINS OF COVID: ECOHEALTH ALLIANCE PRESIDENT PUBLICLY WITNESSES AHEAD OF CONGRESS NEXT MONTH
Committee Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, is expected to lead the hearing, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky. , House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. , and the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Chairman Morgan Griffith, R-Va. , and House Health Subcommittee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky. , are also expected to be able to ask Daszak questions.
Peter Daszak, right, Thea Fischer, left, and other members of the World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus arrive at the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, on February 3, 2021 (Hector Retamal/AFP Getty Images)
The hearing is expected to begin at 10 a. m.
Daszak testified behind closed doors in November, but House Republicans said his testimony contained many “discrepancies,” according to a letter from Wenstrup and other GOP committee chairmen sent to Daszak last month.
“These revelations undermine your credibility, as well as all of the factual claims you made in your transcribed interview,” Wenstrup and the others wrote. “Committees have the right and legal responsibility regarding the integrity of their investigations, adding the accuracy of testimony in an interview transcript. We invite you to sort the file correctly. “
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Lawmakers are calling on Daszak to address discrepancies in his testimony and in EcoHealth’s public relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The lawmakers also said the discrepancies raised “serious questions about the veracity of EcoHealth’s public statements, adding their insistence that the studies they funded in the WIV may not have caused the pandemic at all. “
A security force of workers stands in front of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in Wuhan, China, on February 3, 2021 (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images).
But Daszak’s public hearing is of interest to lawmakers on both sides.
A spokesperson for the Democrats on the COVID subcommittee told Fox News Digital that in Congress they “emphasized the importance of pursuing and prioritizing forward-looking reforms that improve biosecurity criteria in the United States and around the world so that we can lessen the threat. “epidemics in the long run and save you pandemics in the long run.
“In the Select Subcommittee’s investigation into federally funded investigations, testimony and documents reviewed by Democrats in the Select Subcommittee raise serious considerations that EcoHealth Alliance failed to meet federal reporting needs that ensure certain recipients are accountable to the American people,” the spokesperson told Fox News. Digital. ” We look to Dr. Daszak’s testimony before the special subcommittee on this issue. “
Fox News Digital has reported in the past that EcoHealth Alliance won millions of dollars in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Taxpayers’ budget has been funneled to Chinese entities conducting studies on the coronavirus through the EcoHealth Alliance.
This view shows the P4 lab, center left, at the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, on May 27, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP Getty Images)
That money — at least $600,000 — was redirected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and earmarked for studies to assess the transmission of coronaviruses from bats to humans. The studies included RNA extractions and DNA sequencing in bat samples, as well as biological experiments on the spread of pathogens. from bats to humans.
EcoHealth Alliance also won more than $200,000 that was redirected to Wuhan University for disease surveillance study activities, adding the collection of biological samples from other people in China with high degrees of bat exposure so that the Wuhan Institute of Virology can conduct additional testing.
Former U. S. government officials, such as former NIH Director Francis Collins, have said that U. S. taxpayer money is approved for gain-of-function studies, that is, studies that try to modify a virus to make it more infectious in humans.
“Dr. Daszak’s closed-door testimony raised serious considerations about EcoHealth Alliance’s relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Wenstrup told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Even after the selection subcommittee reminded Dr. Daszak that he could face criminal prosecution if he lied to the committees, Dr. Daszak made claims that seemed inconsistent with outside evidence and past revelations. “
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“We look forward to a fair forum where U. S. citizens can hear directly from the president of EcoHealth Alliance and finally get the answers they deserve about the origins of COVID-19,” Wenstrup said.
The U. S. Department of Energy and the FBI have decided that COVID-19 most likely originated from a lab leak in China.
Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.