Joni Ernst: Let’s Defund EcoHealth.

The shady organization that funneled U.S. tax dollars into China’s state-run Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) to conduct risky research on coronaviruses collected from bats is once again being paid by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to experiment on bats.

The NIH actually canceled a grant to EcoHealth Alliance in August after repeated refusals by the group to divulge information about what was really going on in Wuhan. But then last month, they reversed course. The NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, awarded the group a new five year grant that could total millions of dollars to conduct more studies on how coronaviruses from bats could infect humans. 

It is absolutely batty that NIH would give another cent of taxpayer money to EcoHealth when the group has failed to respond to repeated NIH requests about their research, and conducted the same dangerous experiments which may have been responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic to begin with. Sadly, the NIH is not the only government agency guilty of this egregious oversight; the National Science Foundation (NSF) and USAID have both awarded grants to EcoHealth.

I’ve truly had enough. That’s why I introduced a new bill that will ensure EcoHealth Alliance doesn’t receive another penny of U.S. taxpayer money ever again! And I’ve joined with a coalition of Senators and House members to request the NIH and the NSF terminate their entire relationship with this organization.

Giving more taxpayer money to EcoHealth to study pandemic prevention is like paying a suspected arsonist to conduct fire safety inspections. In addition to violating multiple federal laws, EcoHealth has still not turned over documents requested on several occasions by the NIH about these dangerous studies that could offer vital clues to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Let’s defund EcoHealth and launch a real scientific investigation to find out what was really happening in Wuhan, China so the same mistakes are never repeated again. I’m going to bat for taxpayers to stop these batty studies once and for all!

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