EcoHealth Alliance fights back against US government funding suspension
By 
Rebecca Trager2024-06-05T13:30:00
New York-based non-profit will file documents refuting allegations about inadequate oversight of NIH-funded research in China just before the pandemic
The New York-based non-profit EcoHealth Alliance (EHA) is fighting back against the US government’s decision earlier this month to suspend its research funding. Prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, the organisation was funding research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China through a federal grant, and that was ground zero for the controversial theory that a lab leak was responsible for the global pandemic.
The problems for the EHA were sparked by a $3.7 million (£2.9 million) grant it received from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2014 and that was renewed in 2019, on which WIV was a consortium participant. That study examined coronaviruses in bats and their potential to jump to humans and WIV reportedly received more than half a million dollars. Back in 2020, this work became an important issue for President Trump and some Republicans in Congress.