Three Republican congressmen are blasting Dr. Anthony Fauci for awarding a grant to a nonprofit group run by controversial COVID-19 scientist Peter Daszak.
The congressional trio of Reps. Steve Scalise R-La., James Comer, R-Ky., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, made their remarks in a Thursday letter to Fauci
The New York Post had put the grant total at $3.3 million. The newspaper said the grant is being administered by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is headed by Fauci, who is leaving the position at the end of the year.
In the letter, the congressmen said: "On September 21, 2022, the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases [NIAID], which you currently lead, awarded EcoHealth Alliance a new grant to study bat coronaviruses in Asia.
"You awarded this new grant to EcoHealth despite NIAID's parent agency, the National Institutes of Health [NIH], finding that EcoHealth had failed to comply with the terms of previous coronavirus grants and even canceling a subaward to the Wuhan Institute of Virology [WIV] for potentially dangerous research that may have contributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Your decision to fund EcoHealth is especially galling because the company continued to stonewall information gathering about the grant-funded work it previously financed at the WIV.
"NIH has requested all U.S. taxpayer-funded laboratory notebooks and experiment results from EcoHealth's research conducted at the WIV. As of today, however, EcoHealth has yet to supply the records sought by NIH.
"It's outrageous that the result of U.S. taxpayer-funded experiments are unavailable to the U.S. government."
The congressmen are demanding Fauci turn over various documents and be available to brief them.
The Post previously noted that released emails have shown that Daszak and Fauci have a close friendship. Previously, EcoHealth Alliance was granted millions of dollars and directed some of the money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, where some believe COVID-19 leaked, according to the newspaper.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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