A former staffer claims that the EcoHealth president was assigned by the Chinese government to investigate COVID origins in China.
Peter Daszak, the British zoologist who leads the nonprofit organization EcoHealth Alliance in the U.S., was reportedly tasked by the Chinese Communist Party to be one of the investigators in the World Health Organization's (WHO) team that was sent to China to investigate the origins of COVID. A report suggests that his nomination to serve as an investigator for WHO was "likely" supported by Beijing because of his "deep connections (and conflicts of interest) with the CCP's scientific community."
The National Pulse reported that Daszak has spearheaded conferences sponsored by CCP-run scientific organizations and has co-authored studies funded by the Chinese government. He has also participated in conferences hosted by state-run media outlets. Further evidence of his long-standing relationship with CHinese scientists influencing his views on COVID was shown when Daszak claimed that people "misunderstand the Chinese government" while defending Beijing's steps in combating the coronavirus.
A recent Vanity Fair report reveals details on WHO's selection process of who would take part in the investigation into China over COVID origins. The report also details the mishaps and misconduct of Daszak's EcoHealth Alliance, which received millions of dollars in American taxpayer funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is led by controversial White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci.
VF's investigative report said that U.S. officials were "stunned" when WHO announced the names of the 11 international experts assigned to a fact-finding mission to China to investigate the origins of COVID because firstly, China had to veto power over the list and secondly, none of the three candidates recommended by the U.S. were included in the list. However, Daszak was om that very list.
A former staff of EcoHealth Alliance believes that the CCP itself had selected Daszak for the role, saying, "If his name was not among the names floated [by the U.S.], his was the name that the Chinese government chose." Daszak confirmed that the WHO "reached out" to him and "asked" him to serve on the committee, adding that he initially refused. However, after their "persuasive arguments," he decided it was his "duty as a scientist to support the origins investigation."
When asked if Daszak's Lancet letter, in which he and several scientists appeared to distance themselves from the COVID lab leak theory, was so divisive, the EcoHealth Alliance told The Intercept in March, "The real reason this has become so divisive is because it's being used politically. That's it."
Daszak also continued to insist, two years into the pandemic, that "Early on, we said very strongly that this came from nature, and that this lab leak stuff is preposterous." He also denied that EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the lab at the center of the lab leak theory, had ever inserted a furin cleavage site into a bat coronavirus genetic sequence to make it more contagious to humans.
Daszak also defended the Chinese scientists' move to take a database offline in September 2019, saying that "Some folks find this missing database indicative of a cover-up or something."
