peter daszak wuhan covid
© Hector RETAMAL/AFP/Getty ImagesPeter Daszak, who repackaged U.S. government grants and allocated the funds to research institutes including the WIV, arrives there on February 3, 2021, during a fact-finding mission organized in part by the World Health Organization.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been much debate about the origins, treatment and rushed vaccines. Many doctors have been interviewed and consulted, with varying opinions about the virus, research, and the best medicines on the market to help those afflicted with the virus. One such doctor is Peter Daszak, a zoologist and president of the Eco-Health Alliance, a group based in New York City. His bio on the site says that his company is a US-based organization that conducts research and outreach programs on global health, conservation and international development. Unfortunately, when he participated in a statement for the medical journal, The Lancet, with other medical professionals, he was not 100% forthcoming. There may have been some factors that swayed his professional opinions on the COVID-19 virus and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Now we know that EcoHealth gave over $600k in taxpayer dollars to The Wuhan Institute of Virology, and even more through grants. The NY Post and Vanity Fair both did reports about these connections, and discovered some troubling connections:

The nonprofit, which says it's "dedicated to protecting wildlife and public health from the emergency of disease," has received as much as $15 million a year in grant money from various federal agencies, Vanity Fair said.

EcoHealth has used those grants to fund controversial "gain-of-function" research — which can increase the infectiousness and virulence of viruses — at facilities that include the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to Vanity Fair.

The WIV received about $600,000 from a five-year, $3 million-plus grant that Vanity Fair said EcoHealth got from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Daszak was questioned in London about his visit to the Wuhan Lab in January of this year. Daszak was the only American to visit the lab with the World Health Organization. His statement regarding that trip VIA Vanity Fair:
"...Daszak admitted that the group didn't ask to inspect the WIV's database of 22,000 virus samples and sequences, a decision he defended by saying that "a lot of this work has been conducted with EcoHealth Alliance," Vanity Fair said."
Now, the Lancet, which is widely peer-reviewed, is making adjustments to the statement Daszak participated in so as to inform of his bias and influence. From the Lancet :
"In February 2020, 27 public health experts co-authored a Correspondence in The Lancet ("Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19"), supporting health professionals and physicians in China during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this letter, the authors declared no competing interests. Some readers have questioned the validity of this disclosure, particularly as it relates to one of the authors, Peter Daszak."
We will continue to follow this story, as the nation braces for the Covid-19 variant being widely discussed, particularly in light of the Olympics location in Beijing, China. One thing is very clear, Dr. Daszak and his relationship to the Wuhan Institute for Virology created a clear conflict of interest.