Peter Daszak, the president of the non-profit EcoHealth Alliance, is a key figure in trying to discover if the coronavirus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) or occurred naturally. He can also answer a lot of questions about the funding of the WIV and what exactly they were researching there.
Two Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee contacted Daszak, asking him 18 specific questions about his role in the funding for the Wuhan lab. They gave him a deadline of May 18 to respond.
Daszak never got back to the congressmen.
Since the Republican committee members do not have subpoena power, being in the minority for the moment, they have no way to compel Daszak to answer questions. But given that the questions are related to a pandemic that’s killed a couple of million people, you would think that the scientist would be eager to cooperate.
Why he does not tell us says a lot about the funding trail for the Wuhan lab and Daszak’s continued, almost desperate, efforts to keep the truth of what was being researched at Wuhan from the rest of us.
The letter to Daszak was signed by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and committee members Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), both of whom are the top Republicans on Engery and Commerce subcommittees, the Mail said.
Because Democrats narrowly control the House, Republican committee members do not have subpoena power.
The letter was reportedly sent as part of a probe the GOP lawmakers launched in March over suspicions that the coronavirus may have escaped from — and possibly been created inside — the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“We believe through its research activities, collaborations, and EHA’s relationship with the WIV as a federal award subrecipient, that EHA has information and documents that will provide insight into the WIV’s bat coronavirus information and pathways for further research in this area,” the letter from the GOP members says.
The members questioned why Daszak wasn’t eager to cooperate if he’s so sure there was no leak from the lab.
“Since EHA is confident that a lab leak is not the cause, we expect you to welcome the opportunity to share any and all information, documents, and expertise you have related to bat coronavirus research at the WIV,” the letter says.
Daszak was a pivotal character in suppressing any online discussion of the lab-leak theory, organizing the writing of a letter that appeared in the prestigious British medical journal Lancet that was near categorical in its dismissal of a lab leak from Wuhan as being the cause of the pandemic. Media “fact-checkers” and social media censors referred to that letter as reason to dismiss any mention of a lab leak in Wuhan as being a “conspiracy theory.”
He was on the committee of scientists and researchers employed by the WHO and sent to China to unlock the virus origins mystery. He immediately declared that the lab-leak theory was so remote that the team would spend no more time investigating it.
Daszak has a lot to answer for and many questions about the “gain-of-function” research he helped fund at Wuhan and elsewhere. His refusal to answer questions from a congressional committee only deepens the mystery of how this coronavirus began to infect humans and is still causing enormous damage.
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