British zoologist Peter Daszak has been accused in U.S. court documents of working with a senior American health official to undermine the theory that Covid-19 emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan.
The allegations center on Daszak’s communications with David Morens, a former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases employee and adviser to Anthony Fauci, who has pleaded guilty to conspiring to evade public-records laws and conceal government documents.
No charges have been brought against Daszak.
Private Emails and ‘Behind The Scenes’ Help
Morens admitted in a signed plea agreement that he communicated with Daszak, identified in the case as “co-conspirator 1,” through a private Gmail account to keep messages outside freedom of information searches.
According to the court documents, Morens also sought to help Daszak regain federal funding for bat coronavirus research in China after the grants were suspended in April 2020.
Emails from June that year show Morens offering to write a scientific commentary supporting the importance of Daszak’s work while omitting Daszak’s involvement, creating the appearance of an independent intervention.
“Let’s win this anti-science battle, get you refunded... then settle the scores and kick some ass,” Morens wrote to Daszak.
Weeks later, Daszak sent Morens two bottles of The Prisoner Red Napa Valley wine, according to the court filings.
His accompanying message thanked Morens for his “advice, support and behind the scenes shenanigans” and described the gift as the first in what he hoped would become a series of expressions of gratitude.
Campaign Against Lab-Leak Narrative
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland said Morens and his co-conspirators had agreed to help “counter the narrative that Covid-19 leaked from a lab”.
Court documents allege that communications were concealed as part of an effort to produce papers and articles without openly identifying Daszak’s role, thereby creating what prosecutors described as the appearance of “disinterested scientific consensus”.
Morens later published an article arguing that Covid-19 resulted from natural animal-to-human spillover and making the case for research like Daszak's to continue receiving funding.
The correspondence also shows Morens telling Daszak that he was working “behind the scenes” on his behalf.
“My boxing gloves are on and laced up,” he wrote.
Wuhan Research Under Scrutiny
Daszak was president of EcoHealth Alliance, which worked with scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology on research involving bat coronaviruses.
The work included collecting the viruses and genetically modifying them to examine how they could mutate and potentially cross into humans.
Covid-19 emerged about eight miles from the institute.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services debarred Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance last year from receiving federal funding for five years.
That followed an eight-month investigation that concluded U.S. taxpayer funds had facilitated dangerous gain-of-function research in China designed to make viruses more lethal.
Molecular biologist Richard Ebright, who has advocated a full investigation of a possible laboratory origin, described Morens’s guilty pleas as an initial step toward accountability for U.S. officials involved in funding the Wuhan research.
WHO Mission and Conflict Questions
Daszak was also part of a World Health Organization team that visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2021 to investigate the pandemic's origins.
The resulting report treated a laboratory origin as possible but unlikely. It faced widespread criticism over its conclusions.
Daszak later withdrew from Covid origins investigations after failing to disclose the extent of his work with scientists at the Wuhan institute.
Viscount Ridley, co-author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19, accused Daszak of trying to block scrutiny of whether a laboratory accident caused the pandemic.
He said Daszak had sought to “kill any investigation into the possibility that a laboratory accident killed millions of people”.
Efforts to Avoid Disclosure
Emails released by the U.S. House oversight committee in 2024 showed Morens and Daszak discussing freedom of information requests and how to handle potentially sensitive correspondence.
Morens described such requests as “dreadful and paranoia-inducing” and wrote that those involved were sufficiently careful not to leave incriminating material in emails.
He also claimed he could make emails disappear after receiving a freedom of information request and, in another message in 2021, advised deleting emails once a subject became sensitive.
Morens entered his guilty plea in the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis scheduled sentencing for November 12. Morens faces up to five years in prison and a possible $250,000 fine.
Fauci has previously told a House committee that Morens acted improperly and that he was not involved in attempts to restore the EcoHealth grant.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.