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EcoHealth Alliance Given $2.9m for New Bat Virus Research – But With Ban on Gain-of-Function and Work in China

by Will Jones
10 May 2023 4:00 PM

The U.S. Government has awarded $2.9 million (£2.3m) to the notorious EcoHealth Alliance – considered by many to be linked to the creation of SARS-CoV-2 – to resume bat virus research. But it comes with major restrictions, including a ban on working in China and anything resembling gain-of-function. The Telegraph has more.

EcoHealth Alliance, which was working with Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) to collect and study bat viruses before the pandemic, has been allowed to restart experiments after a three-year suspension, but with massive restrictions.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has forbidden the team from carrying out any research in China and banned the collection of bat or human samples.

It has also prohibited scientists from culturing chimeric viruses, carrying out infection experiments or doing anything that has the potential to enhance the virulence or transmission of a virus.

The team has been also told it must operate at biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) – the laboratory grade for studying infectious agents or toxins that may be transmitted through the air and cause a potentially lethal infection. Previously work at WIV was being carried out under biosafety level 2.

Scientists told the journal Nature they had never seen a grant with so many stipulations attached. U.S. based EcoHealth, which is headed up by the British zoologist Peter Daszak, said it had also agreed to “additional oversight mechanisms” under the four-year $2.9 million (£2.3m) grant.

Mr Daszak told the Telegraph it was still possible to carry out research with the restrictions, adding that the sensitive political climate surrounding virus experiments had made previous operations more difficult.

“We have many untested bat and human samples from other countries. We realised that we can still answer fundamental questions about coronavirus spillover even without further sampling or laboratory work in China,” he said.

“It seemed that the most straightforward way to move forwards was to propose to NIH that we do no on-the-ground sampling in China or elsewhere, that we replace the recombinant virus work with computer modelling and protein binding experiments, and that we conduct any bat coronavirus culture at BSL-3.”

Matt Ridley, co- author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19, said the restrictions were a “big admission” that the earlier research had been potentially dangerous. He added:

Rather than quietly tiptoeing away from such research, it would be better if governments got together and agreed a policy. It’s no good just saying in the case of one fundee, ‘please don’t go virus hunting and fiddle with the genes of potentially pandemic pathogens in live form’ we should have an explicit policy. What is the British Government doing about this, for example?

Worth reading in full.

Tags: ChinaCovid originsCOVID-19EcoHealth AllianceLab leakPeter DaszakUnited StatesWuhan Institute of Virology

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18 Comments
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transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago

“But With Ban on Gain-of-Function and Work in China”
Obviously not an admission that GOF research in China might have gone wrong, leaked, caused problems…

36
-1
NeilParkin
NeilParkin
2 years ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

You don’t need to be Hercule Poirot to see that’s a clue, mon ami…!

34
-1
ebygum
ebygum
2 years ago
Reply to  NeilParkin

..and it was ‘banned’ the last time they did it wasn’t it..by Obama if I’m remembering correctly…? Is this time a charm?

5
0
LaptopMaestro
LaptopMaestro
2 years ago

They’re proven liars, and can never be trusted

37
0
Tyrbiter
Tyrbiter
2 years ago

“Now listen children, all those naughty things that you didn’t do, make absolutely certain that you don’t get caught doing them again.”

45
0
RW
RW
2 years ago

This policy should obviously be Experimental gene editing is strictly prohibited with something suitably drastic as punishment for it to ensure that people are inclined to try to create Frankenstein’s virus are deterred from ever trying to put their insane ideas into practice. This should be extended to all kinds of scientific experiments intended to harm mankind. I remember reading about a lab experiment conducted somewhere to see if it wasn’t possible to make bacteria resistant to disinfectants by selective breeding.

16
0
ekathulium
ekathulium
2 years ago
Reply to  RW

Do think that would include scientific experiments on bombs?
Last time I heard, bombs were intended to harm mankind . . .

4
0
RW
RW
2 years ago
Reply to  ekathulium

You’ve heard wrongly. Bombs are weapons supposed to help someone win a war, not dangerous organisms supposed to render effective health care globally impossible.

9
0
ekathulium
ekathulium
2 years ago
Reply to  RW

Atomic bombs?
The Americans (and the British!) seem to be spoiling for WW3 with Russia, which will just mean the end of mankind.

1
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
2 years ago

I am beginning to wonder if the gain of function research was really all about getting the brew ready i e the injections? The C1984 was seemingly just re-branded ‘flu after all. Meanwhile, these poisons they have knocked up clearly have a catalogue of dangerous effects on humanity: heart problems, diabetes, turbo cancers etc. Perhaps we have been looking at the Scamdemic from the wrong angle.

24
-1
Tyrbiter
Tyrbiter
2 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

I accidentally downvoted you, trying to reply when not logged in.

Have a read of the articles by Paula Jardine at The Conservative Woman site.

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/anatomy-of-the-sinister-covid-project/

It explains a great deal and shows what happens when people are apparently allowed to operate without any suitable oversight.

9
-1
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
2 years ago
Reply to  Tyrbiter

Don’t worry about the tick.

I am a subscriber to TCW and read it daily. I am very familiar with the Paula Jardine articles.

Thanks.

6
0
gedhurst
gedhurst
2 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Everything points to the death jab being ready before Nov 2019. The ‘pandemic’ was the convenient excuse to unleash it on the world.

3
0
ekathulium
ekathulium
2 years ago

EcoHealth boss Peter Daszak stated he wanted the publicity campaign about viruses to stoke up people´s demand for vaccines. He said the media were essential for the hype and that we (Big Pharma) must take advantage of it because investors will see the profit from this process!
You can scarcely get more cynical and venal than that yet the Americans are giving this guy $millions of taxpayers funds!
The people like EcoHealth Alliance should be facing criminal charges, not given public bungs.

31
0
DomH75
DomH75
2 years ago
Reply to  ekathulium

Best thing is to get all of them and their research in one place so someone can drop a nuke on them!!

17
0
7941MHKB
7941MHKB
2 years ago

In other news, Harold Shipman is back as a GP and also will be running “Flower Arrangement for Elderly Ladies” courses.

2
0
adamcollyer
adamcollyer
2 years ago

If it is “still possible to carry out research with the restrictions”, then what on earth was this organisation doing carrying out those dangerous experiments before?

Daszak has some serious questions to answer, and at the moment they are not even being asked.

4
0
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
2 years ago

I am glad that Eric and Ernie are back on the stage.

1
0

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