The EcoHealth Alliance lost funding from HHS due to evidence from the COVID Committee.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has debarred EcoHealth Alliance Inc. and its former President Dr. Peter Daszak, preventing both the organization and the doctor from receiving federal funds for five years. The debarment was due to EcoHealth's failure to report dangerous gain-of-function experiments to the government. In the notice of debarment for Daszak, an HHS official stated that the actions taken were "necessary" to safeguard US government business interests.

The House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., applauded the debarment and declared it "justice for the American people." Comer criticized "bad actor" EcoHealth and "its corrupt former president" for using taxpayer money to conduct "dangerous gain-of-function research in China."

The House Oversight Committee's Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released an interim report in May, detailing their investigation into government funding and oversight of gain-of-function research.

The subcommittee in the report discovered "substantial proof" that Daszak consistently breached the conditions of the NIH grant given to EcoHealth. As a result, the committee recommended that EcoHealth and Daszak be officially barred and denied any federal funding.

The committee accused EcoHealth of not submitting an annual research update until August 2021, two years after the deadline in September 2019.

In a May 2024 memo, committee chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Oh, stated that EcoHealth Alliance President Dr. Peter Daszak is not a responsible manager of US taxpayer funds and should never again receive funding from the US taxpayer.

"The Wuhan Institute of Virology, led by Dr. Daszak, engaged in hazardous gain-of-function research, disregarded the conditions of a $2 million NIH grant, and endangered US national security. This flagrant disregard for the American public is unacceptable."

The debarment for EcoHealth Alliance and Dr. Daszak will end on May 14, 2029, and May 20, 2029, respectively.

Over the past decade and a half, the federal government gave the disgraced research firm almost $100 million.

The US government gave EcoHealth Alliance $94.3 million in taxpayer funds from FY 2008 to FY 2024, as per a Planet Chronicle Digital analysis of government spending data from USAspending.gov.

A spokesperson for EcoHealth did not respond to a request for comment.

Kyle Morris contributed to this report.