The Republican-controlled Subcommittee on COVID-19 appears to be nudging the Biden administration with a sweeping investigation into groups and individuals linked to the unproven COVID-19 lab virus leak theory.
Over the past month, the subcommittee has heard testimony from EcoHealth Alliance president Peter Daszak and NIH principal deputy director Lawrence Tabak. It also subpoenaed former COVID-19 chief Anthony Fauci’s senior aide, David Morens, who was grilled about damning revelations about his own conduct.
The purpose of these hearings was to provide a timeline of what happened between federal authorities and EcoHealth before and after the COVID-19 outbreak and to determine whether any of it may have contributed to the global health crisis.
Apparently around the same time as this hearing, the White House took action to bar EcoHealth and Daszak from receiving federal funds, and committee members believe they played a role in this decision.
“I think the subcommittee had an impact on EcoHealth by exposing what happened,” Rep. Deborah Ross (R-North Carolina) told The Hill.
“But I don’t believe the subcommittee used its influence for good, as it should have, so that was a small positive thing the committee did,” Ross added. “But there have been so many missed opportunities for bipartisan cooperation on this committee, and it breaks my heart.”
Despite a series of reports and hearings, neither the committee nor federal agencies appear to be any closer to identifying the origins of the virus that has killed nearly 1.2 million Americans and is still rising.
EcoHealth is an infectious disease nonprofit that has received federal grants to study emerging viruses. The organization has given grants to labs such as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which studies coronaviruses. Critics, including Republican members of the subcommittee, have questioned whether the WIV’s research led to the lab leak that sparked the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although this theory has not been proven, federal health authorities have repeatedly accused EcoHealth of not properly monitoring the WIV and other grant recipients and of not submitting progress reports in a timely manner.
The administration maintains that the decision to bar federal funding to EcoHealth was an “independent act.”
A Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson declined to say when the move to cut funding occurred when asked by The Hill. The spokesperson pointed to an earlier statement that the move came after a “thorough investigation” that found EcoHealth was “not in compliance with federal regulations and the terms of the grant.”
The subcommittee’s chairman, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), made it clear he didn’t think the timing was a coincidence.
“Just two weeks after the Select Subcommittee released its detailed report detailing EcoHealth’s wrongdoings and recommending the formal decertification of EcoHealth and its president, HHS has begun efforts to end all U.S. funding to this corrupt organization,” it said in a statement shortly after the announcement.
Lawmakers from both parties have issued a bipartisan condemnation of EcoHealth and the company’s perceived failure to comply with federal requirements, a rare move for a commission that has been deeply riven by partisan fighting since its inception in 2020.
Democrats joined in accusing the committee of wrongdoing, but several committee members were quick to point out that the testimony did not accomplish one of the committee’s primary objectives after Republicans took power: determining the origins of COVID-19.
Instead, these hearings have had the greater effect of embarrassing federal health agencies like the NIH and their current and former officials, including Fauci.
This dynamic was on perfect display in a recent subcommittee hearing involving Morens, who was a senior adviser to the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and worked closely with Fauci during his tenure as NIAID director.
The released emails from Morens included apparent efforts to conduct official business outside the scope of Freedom of Information Act requests, the deletion of federal records, misogynistic comments about fellow federal health officials and poorly worded jokes that alluded to a business relationship with EcoHealth’s Daszak.
The subcommittee’s ranking member, Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), blasted Mullens, accusing him of betraying the public trust and misusing federal resources, but he reiterated that the hearings appeared to stray from the committee’s purpose.
“Dr. Morens’ testimony today is not a groundbreaking event in understanding the actual origins of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Lewis added, “because, in fact, as of today, the origins of the novel coronavirus remain inconclusive.”
During nearly two hours of questioning, Morens said he used a personal email account to “avoid further embarrassment or danger” to Daszak, who has been a prime target of claims of a COVID-19 lab leak.
At the hearing, the NIAID adviser publicly apologized for the numerous missteps documented in his email, and Rep. Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii) called on Morens to apologize directly to her for the disparagement her actions have caused to federal officials.
“Can you say you are truly sorry for betraying your shared duty to serve the American taxpayer with the utmost respect for transparency and accountability and for disappointing the American people? Will you apologize for that?” Tokuda asked.
Mollens disputed the use of the word “betray” but said he was not proud of his actions.
In an email to Daszak, Morens implied that Fauci was trying to “protect” EcoHealth as a grant recipient. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) asked Morens if he had discussed EcoHealth with Fauci.
“He was mentioning or alluding to something that was being reported. I don’t think he said what it was, but I assumed it was about … Peter’s grant and the reporting on that and the termination of the grant,” Morens said.
“I said to him, ‘Tony, I know you’ll never be involved in removing that subsidy,’ but he didn’t say anything, he just looked at me,” he added.
Another email addressed to Daszak, which also copied other federal COVID advisers, seemed to suggest Fauci was aware of the inappropriate behavior but was trying to protect himself.
“Either send it to Tony via private Gmail or hand deliver it to him at work or at home. He is smart enough not to let his coworkers send him something that could get him in trouble,” Morens wrote to EcoHealth’s president.
Fauci himself is scheduled to testify before the subcommittee on June 3, marking his first congressional hearing since leaving government service.
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