Fauci's Inner Circle Shielded US Collaborator At Wuhan Lab

Despite scrutiny and suspended funding, EcoHealth Alliance, a collaborator with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, continued receiving millions in public funding with the help of allies within Anthony Fauci's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Fauci's close advisor, David Morens, and NIAID scientists Jeffery Taubenberger and Erik Stemmy, advocated for EcoHealth. NIAID officials who approved EcoHealth's gain-of-function research also aided them, dismissing concerns as "luddites." EcoHealth planned to continue similar research with the new funding. Despite debarment proceedings initiated in 2022, EcoHealth's allies remain influential within NIAID. EcoHealth's president, Peter Daszak, had early contact with NIAID about the novel coronavirus but had lost contact with his Wuhan collaborators before the pandemic began. Trump's administration initially sought to end EcoHealth's grant over concerns about the pandemic's origins, but NIAID officials resisted and defended Daszak's work. Legislation is pending to move regulation of risky gain-of-function research out of NIAID's control.