Washington, D.C. - House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul released the following statement in response to recent reports the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has resumed its partnership with EcoHealth Alliance. Chairman McCaul’s report on COVID-19 origins found EcoHealth Alliance was complicit in the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup while being funded by American taxpayer dollars, and it has never been held accountable.
“It is unconscionable that the National Institutes of Health has renewed this partnership with EcoHealth Alliance - a group that has blatantly lied to the U.S. Government about funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Moreover, according to a Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General report released in January, U.S. oversight of EcoHealth Alliance projects has been woefully insufficient - but NIH continues to fund this questionable organization, including this grant to continue bat coronavirus research. It is a betrayal of the public’s trust that, being fully aware of the risks, NIH continues to support this organization while the American people are denied the truth about COVID-19 origins."