As I have recently discussed, the evidence-lacking COVID-19 lab leak origin theory has been part of a right-wing partisan effort pushed by the GOP-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (HSSCP), the Heritage Foundation, and established pandemic political bad actors. Recommendations on lab leak talking points were featured in the April 2020 “Corona Big Book” published for Republicans by the strategic communications firm O’Donnell & Associates. Around this time, Trump began pushing the theory and has repeated it on the campaign trail as recently as a few weeks ago.

This attention-grabbing narrative has stoked mistrust in science and distracted from the Trump administration’s horrendous mismanagement of the pandemic outbreak. EcoHealth Alliance, an organization that conducts federally funded virology research which has included work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, has been made the scapegoat and erroneously accused of being responsible for the deadly pandemic – amid MAGA’s all-out war on science.

The quest for a villain

In May, EcoHealth president Peter Daszak was dragged before the GOP-led HSSCP (full transcript here) and received a concerning lack of support from Democrat subcommittee members, despite saying in his opening statement, “Our organization, staff, and even my own family were often targeted with false allegations, death threats, break-ins, media harassment, and other damaging acts.” Daszak has frighteningly found himself, his wife, and children on a “kill list” on 4chan. 

The HSSCP did not have evidence to substantiate their lab leak claims – and they certainly did not have proof to show a coordinated cover up of a lab leak including the likes of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who Democratic subcommittee members were quicker to defend.

While the lab leak narrative dates back to the early days of the pandemic under the Trump administration, those who have pushed it have failed in the last 4+ years to provide proof needed to make such extreme accusations. Publications in favor of the lab leak have relied on a great deal of speculation and cherry-picking – yet this has been sufficient for the GOP and complicit media to run with in their quest for a villain figure.

How low can they go?

The sole point the GOP-led subcommittee had against EcoHealth involved a progress report that was filed late, which EcoHealth asserted was due not to negligence on the part of the organization but an issue with the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) website. Regardless, barring a scientist from NIH funding for filing a late report may be unprecedented. Subjecting him to a congressional grilling for doing so seems bizarre in the extreme, especially given EcoHealth’s decades-long track record at the forefront of important ecological research.

Following the hearing, EcoHealth was recommended for debarment for future federal funding by the subcommittee. Shortly after, Health and Human Services (NIH’s parent organization) announced movement to debar EcoHealth, citing the work of the HSSCP. HSSCP chairman Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) made public comments about debarring Daszak personally – a display of how low the subcommittee was willing to stoop in their scapegoating – and the HHS obliged, filing a personal suspension and proposed a debarment notice to Daszak.

This drew strong criticism from members of the scientific community, including vaccine expert and disinformation fighter Dr. Peter Hotez, who has also found himself on the receiving end of harassment from the HSSCP.

EcoHealth responds to HSSCP accusations

At the May hearing, Daszak asserted the accusations made against both EcoHealth and him personally could and would be disproven. After months of work with lawyers – a process that was likely quite costly – EcoHealth has now published a 146-page response on its website, fighting back at the congressional and public smearing.

This comes on the heels of the publication of a major paper in Cell on the genetic tracing of wildlife at the Wuhan wet market where the COVID-19 pandemic is believed to have emerged. While the paper did not reveal the exact mechanism of spillover, it showed the presence of animals and virus in the section of the wet market where most of the positive samples were collected.   

One of the paper’s authors, virologist Dr. Angela Rasmussen explained the significance of their paper:

This is one more piece on top of a mountain of evidence supporting a zoonotic origin. We have the pandemic beginning at the same time as the virus began circulating at the market, we have the earliest known cases expanding outward from the market and not a lab, we have the samples within the market testing positive in the same place where live animals were sold, and now we have evidence that susceptible animals were actually there. These data can’t be explained in any kind of realistic laboratory or research-related scenario.

Dogs with a bone

Unfortunately, it is unlikely that the GOP and their allies will drop the narrative anytime soon. After all, the HSSCP has been propping up the authors of the anti-public health, pro-economy Great Barrington Declaration, which was never a viable strategy, and proponents of the failed COVID-19 early treatment drugs pushed by Trump and his allies.

Additionally, a recent and concerning Stanford conference hosting COVID-19 minimizing contrarians – some of whom have been majority expert witnesses at the HSSCP – featured a panel on the lab leak with individuals involved with the problematic organization Biosafety Now. The panel was moderated by a senior editor from the Epoch Times, a “global conservative multimedia company championing former President Donald Trump and conspiracy theories.” The Epoch Times has published numerous pieces targeting Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance.

As Rasmussen said,

In my opinion, my professional field owes EcoHealth our gratitude for their contributions to our scientific field. And from the people outside our field who have persecuted them relentlessly for political reasons, they are also owed an apology.