At a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing last week, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) questioned EcoHealth Alliance President Dr. Peter Daszak.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I now recognize Ms. Malliotakis from New York for five minutes of questions.
00:03Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Dr. Daszak, gain-of-function is broadly understood as a type
00:08of research that modifies a biological agent so that it confers new and enhanced activity to that
00:13agent. Does that describe any of the work that Wuhan conducted as far as you are knowledgeable?
00:19That is not the definition of gain-of-function.
00:21Okay, then what is your definition?
00:22I don't have a personal definition.
00:24Okay, but did you—let me ask this question. Did any of the research that you funded
00:28through your organization at Wuhan Lab modify a virus to make it more infectious among humans?
00:34Yes or no?
00:35No. That was not the goal of our work, and that's why it was not considered gain-of-function.
00:39Okay, but in 2016—
00:40Will the gentlelady suspend for just a moment?
00:42Yes.
00:43Under the rules of the House, the chairman is responsible for maintaining order and
00:47preserving decorum in the committee room. I expect audience members to be respectful
00:51of the witnesses, members, and public, and there should be no filming. I yield back.
00:58In 2016, in an email to NIH, you said,
01:01we are happy to hear that our gain-of-function research funding ban has—or prohibition has—a
01:07pause, rather, has been lifted. So what were you—what gain-of-function, therefore, followed?
01:13Well, they paused our research because of the gain-of-function pause.
01:17They lifted the pause on our research. That was the response I was—
01:20Okay, so after that period of time, you did not fund any research that modified a virus to make
01:28it more infectious among humans.
01:29EcoHealth Alliance never has and did not do gain-of-function research, by definition.
01:34Are you aware of Wuhan Lab conducting that type of research?
01:39No.
01:39Okay. The State Department has indicated ties between Chinese military and WIV since 2017.
01:46You testified earlier that you were not aware of any type of military activity at the WIV.
01:51I've never seen any. I've never seen any reliable reporting of any.
01:56Okay. EcoHealth received tens of millions of dollars from the Defense Department.
02:02Did any of this money make its way to the WIV?
02:05Not a single cent.
02:06Okay. Did any scientific information derived with those funds make its way to the WIV?
02:13The scientific information derived from the DITRA work that we do
02:17goes to DITRA and the American people.
02:19Okay. And so no technology or anything obtained with the funds
02:26from the Department of Defense made its way to the WIV?
02:28There is no connection between the WIV and the work we do with DITRA at all, whatsoever.
02:34Okay. Thank you. Why did you choose to partner with the Wuhan Lab?
02:40Well, if you want to work in a foreign country to find the next potential
02:46risk of a pandemic, you have to work with labs in those countries.
02:50We looked at labs across China. The WIV is the premier viral research in China.
02:55And at no time were you concerned about subpar safety conditions at this particular lab?
03:01No. In fact, it's got very good biosafety level.
03:05Well, I mean, I think that could be disputed at this point.
03:08I've never seen any verifiable evidence or data that suggests otherwise.
03:12Well, I think our intelligence department,
03:14intelligence community has shown that they've been operating...
03:18No, I've never seen any verifiable or real data to suggest otherwise.
03:23Intelligence community reports behind the security code and I can't see those.
03:29How much has the Eco Alliance received since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic
03:33from American tax dollars from 2020 to today?
03:37Our annual operating budget this year is about $16 million.
03:41So it's been about four years since the pandemic.
03:43So given the fluctuation in funding, approximately four times $15 or $16 million.
03:50Okay. Now, colleagues on both sides of the aisle say that we want to
03:54prevent the next pandemic, yet EcoHealth is still receiving
03:57tens of millions of dollars to do risky...
04:00To prevent the next pandemic.
04:04But...
04:04That's our goal. That's our mission.
04:05It's written into our mission.
04:06To prevent the next pandemic, you could actually produce one.
04:09And...
04:10No.
04:10What I want to... Yes, absolutely. Yes.
04:12No, no, absolutely not. That's not...
04:15So although funding was stopped at EcoHealth's Alliance work on bat coronaviruses in Wuhan,
04:21your researchers are still doing research on bat coronaviruses
04:25in Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. Is that correct?
04:29Yes. Not Myanmar. We're not allowed to work there yet because of political instability.
04:33Okay. And are you doing experiments with bats and hamsters on the deadly brain-swelling
04:39Nipah virus in Bangladesh?
04:42I would have to check if we're doing experiments on that.
04:45We certainly have funding to work on Nipah virus.
04:47It's a very real threat globally and to the American people.
04:51And are you infecting humanized mice with zoonotic viruses in Southeast Asia?
04:57Not to my knowledge, but I would have to check.
04:59Okay. And are you...
05:01Did you obtain $14 million in taxpayer funds to import bats from Asia to create a breeding
05:06colony here in the United States at the State University of Colorado?
05:10We have a collaboration with CSU to work on a really significant
05:15public health threat called Nipah virus.
05:18Okay. And now you'll be infecting those bats with deadly viruses, including the Nipah and the Ebola.
05:23Are you aware that Colorado State University has had lab accidents in the past?
05:29There will be no infection experiments, to my knowledge, with Nipah or Ebola at CSU.
05:34That will be done at a BSL-4 facility elsewhere.
05:37Okay. I've run out of time. I'll yield back. Thank you.
05:41Dr. Desik, we're going to take some of the questions that you said you'd get back to us on.
05:45We'll submit them for the record and get a response.