GREEN BAY, WI — Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) today released the following statement in response to reports that the National Insitutes of Health (NIH) has continued to provide grant funding to the EcoHealth Alliance despite EcoHealth’s continued violations of its grant agreement and refusal to provide basic documents about its risky research in Wuhan.
“While the origins of COVID-19 remain unclear, investigations so far have unveiled that American taxpayers, through grants provided to the EcoHealth Alliance, funded gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The American people deserve to know what, if any, role these funds played in the pandemic, but obstruction from Democrats, bureaucrats like Anthony Fauci, and the Chinese Communist Party have prevented us from getting these answers
“Thanks to overwhelming pressure, the NIH last week announced it would no longer provide taxpayer funds to the WIV due to its refusal to provide information on its risky coronavirus research. This is long overdue but not nearly enough. Like the WIV, the EcoHealth Alliance violated its grant agreement and delayed notifying the NIH of dangerous research at the WIV for over two years. At the same time, it has refused to provide the NIH with basic documents about the research that American taxpayers unknowingly funded in Wuhan. Despite EcoHealth’s non-compliance, the NIH continues to award the organization with taxpayer dollars to fund its risky research. This is insane.
“It’s past time for Congress to hold NIH and the EcoHealth Alliance accountable for their careless use of taxpayer dollars and to get the American people answers about the origins of COVID-19, as well as other dangerous research taxpayer dollars may be funding around the world. Anthony Fauci may be resigning, but we must ensure that accountability does not end there. When Republicans take back the House this November, we will work to deliver just that.”
