{"id":3217,"date":"2020-12-21T08:53:56","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T08:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=141722"},"modified":"2020-12-21T08:53:56","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T08:53:56","slug":"militarized-pandemic-science-why-is-the-pentagon-funding-the-ecohealth-alliance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/21\/militarized-pandemic-science-why-is-the-pentagon-funding-the-ecohealth-alliance\/","title":{"rendered":"Militarized Pandemic Science: Why is the Pentagon Funding the EcoHealth Alliance?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\u201cPandemics are like terrorist attacks: We know roughly where they originate and what\u2019s responsible for them, but we don\u2019t know exactly when the next one will happen. They need to be handled the same way \u2014 by identifying all possible sources and dismantling those before the next pandemic strikes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
This statement was written in the New York Times<\/em> earlier this year by Peter Daszak. Daszak is the longtime president of the EcoHealth Alliance<\/a>, a New York-based non-profit whose claimed focus is pandemic prevention. But the EcoHealth Alliance, it turns out, is at the very centre of the COVID-19 pandemic in many ways.<\/p>\n
To depict the pandemic in such militarized terms is, for Daszak, a commonplace. In an\u00a0Oct. 7 online talk organized by Columbia University\u2019s School of International and Public Affairs<\/a>, Daszak presented a slide titled \u201cDonald Rumsfeld\u2019s Prescient Speech.\u201d:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are known knowns; there are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things that we know we don\u2019t know. But there are also unknown unknowns \u2014 there are things we don\u2019t know we don\u2019t know.\u201d (This Rumsfeld quote is in fact from a news conference)<\/p>\n
In the subsequent online discussion, Daszak emphasized the parallels between his own crusade and Rumsfeld\u2019s, since, according to Daszak, the \u201cpotential for unknown attacks\u201d is \u201cthe same for viruses\u201d.<\/p>\n
Daszak then proceeded with a not terribly subtle pitch for over a billion dollars. This money would support a fledgling virus hunting and surveillance project of his, the Global Virome Project<\/a> \u2014 a \u201cdoable project\u201d he assured watchers \u2014 given the cost of the pandemic to governments and various industries.<\/p>\n
Also on the video was Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs<\/a>. Sachs is a former special advisor to the UN, the former head of the Millennium Villages Project, and was recently appointed Chair of the newly-formed EAT Lancet Commission\u00a0on the pandemic<\/a>. In September, Sachs\u2019 commission named Daszak to head up its\u00a0committee<\/a> on the pandemic\u2019s origins. Daszak is also on the WHO\u2019s committee to investigate the pandemic\u2019s origin<\/a>. He is the only individual on both committees.<\/p>\n
These leadership positions are not the only reason why Peter Daszak is such a central figure in the COVID-19 pandemic, however. His appointment dismayed many<\/a> of those who are aware that Daszak\u2019s EcoHealth Alliance funded bat coronavirus research, including virus collection, at the Wuhan Institute for Virology (WIV) and thus could themselves be directly implicated in the outbreak<\/a>.<\/p>\n
For his part, Daszak has repeatedly dismissed<\/a> the notion that the pandemic could have a lab origin<\/a>. In fact, a recent FOIA by the transparency group U.S. Right To Know<\/a> revealed that Peter Daszak drafted an influential multi-author letter<\/a> published on February 18 in the Lancet. That letter dismissed lab origin hypothesese as \u201cconspiracy theory.\u201d Daszak was revealed to have orchestrated the letter such as to \u201cavoid the appearance of a political statement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sachs for his part seemed surprised by Daszak\u2019s depiction of Rumsfeld but Daszak reassured him. \u201cIt\u2019s an awesome quote! And yes, it\u2019s Donald Rumsfeld, Jeff, and I know he\u2019s a Republican, but \u2014 what a genius!\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the EcoHealth Alliance\u2019s money trail to the Pentagon<\/h4>\n
Collecting dangerous viruses is typically justified as a preventive and defensive activity, getting ahead of what \u201cNature\u201d or \u201cThe Terrorists\u201d might throw at us. But by its nature, this work is \u201cdual use\u201d. \u201cBiodefense\u201d is often just as easily biowarfare since biodefense and the products of biowarfare are identical. It\u2019s simply a matter of what the stated goals are.<\/p>\n
This is openly acknowledged [See below] by scientists associated with EcoHealth Alliance when talking about alleged programs in other counties \u2014 like Iraq.<\/p>\n
For much of this year, Daszak\u2019s EcoHealth Alliance garnered a great deal of sympathetic media coverage after its $3.7 million five-year NIH grant was prematurely cut when the Trump administration learned that EcoHealth Alliance funded bat coronavirus research at the WIV.<\/p>\n
The temporary\u00a0cut was widely depicted in major media<\/a> as Trump undermining the EcoHealth Alliance\u2019s\u00a0noble fight against pandemics. The termination was reversed by NIH in late August, and even upped to $7.5 million<\/a>. But entirely overlooked amid the claims and counter-claims was that far more funding for the EcoHealth Alliance comes from the Pentagon than the NIH.<\/p>\n
To be strictly fair to the media, Daszak\u2019s EcoHealth Alliance obscures its Pentagon funding. On its website EcoHealth Alliance states that \u201cA copy of the EHA Grant Management Manual is available upon request to the EHA Chief Financial Officer at\u00a0finance ( at ) ecohealthalliance.org\u201d. But an email to that address and numerous others, including Peter Daszak\u2019s, requesting that Manual, as well as other financial information, was not returned. Neither were repeated voicemails.<\/p>\n
Only\u00a0buried under their \u201cPrivacy Policy,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0under a section titled \u201cEcoHealth Alliance Policy Regarding Conflict of Interest in Research,\u201d does the EcoHealth Alliance concede it is the\u00a0\u201crecipient of various grant awards from federal agencies including the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the US Agency for International Development and the Department of Defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even this listing is deceptive. It obscures that its two largest funders are the Pentagon and the State Department (USAID); whereas the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which accounts for a minuscule $74,487, comes before either.<\/p>\n
Meticulous investigation of U.S. government databases reveals that Pentagon funding for the EcoHealth Alliance from 2013 to 2020, including contracts, grants and subcontracts, was just under $39 million<\/strong>. Most, $34.6 million, was from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), which is a branch of the DOD which states it is tasked to \u201ccounter and deter weapons of mass destruction and improvised threat networks.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
Most of the remaining money to EHA was from USAID (State Dept.), comprising at least $64,700,000 <\/strong>(1)<\/strong>. These two sources thus total over $103 million<\/strong>. (See Fig).<\/p>\n