Dr. Peter Daszak, a scientist responsible for conspiring to brand the Covid-19 lab leak hypothesis as a ‘conspiracy theory, has recused himself from a UN backed Lancet Commission to look into the origins of SARS-COV-2, the novel Coronavirus that caused the pandemic. The development was announced by the Commission on its website on the 22nd of June.
The statement said, “The Lancet COVID-19 Commission will carefully scrutinize the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in advance of its final report, with the overriding aim of recommending policies to prevent and contain future emerging infectious disease outbreaks. The Commission’s technical work will be conducted by independent experts who were not themselves directly involved in US-China research activities that are under scrutiny. Dr. Peter Daszak has recused himself from the Commission’s work on the origins of the virus.”
“The Commission urges all scientists who were involved in the US-China research to explain fully and transparently the nature of their work. In the meantime, the Commission will tap global experts in biosafety and other fields to help assess the relevant hypotheses on the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and to recommend ways to prevent and contain future outbreaks, whether from naturally occurring zoonotic events or research-related activities,” it added.
Daszak is the “President of EcoHealth Alliance, a US-based organization that conducts research and outreach programs on global health, conservation and international development.” His bio on the Commissioners section of the website now says ‘recused’.
Peter Daszak had orchestrated a letter in The Lancet calling lab leak hypothesis a ‘Conspiracy Theory’
Peter Daszak was the brain behind a letter that was published in The Lancet, rejecting the idea of a lab accident leading to a leak of SARS-COV-2 based on little evidence. The letter was signed by several other scientists apart from Daszak himself and was then touted by others as evidence that there was no way SARS-COV-2 could have leaked from a lab.
At the time, Daszak had failed to disclose his conflict of interest when signing the letter. Daszak’s organization, the EcoHealth Alliance, funneled $3.4 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study bat coronaviruses between 2014 and 2019. Some experts believe that the Covid-19 was originated in a lab in Wuhan, and WIV may have been the ground zero of the Chinese pandemic.
Daszak thanked Anthony Fauci for rubbishing the lab leak hypothesis
Daszak had personally thanked Dr. Anthony Fauci for help in tarnishing the credibility of the lab leak hypothesis. “I just wanted to say a personal thank you on behalf of our staff and collaborators, for publicly standing up and stating that the scientific evidence supports a natural origin for COVID-19 from a bat-to-human spillover, not a lab release from the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” he wrote to Fauci on April 18, 2020.
“From my perspective, your comments are brave, and coming from your trusted voice, will help dispel the myths being spun around the virus’s origins,” Daszak added in his letter. Fauci responded to Daszak’s email on April 19, writing “Many thanks for your kind note.”
Peter Daszak lies about bats in Wuhan Institute of Virology
Daszak had claimed in a tweet initially, “This is a widely circulated conspiracy theory. This piece describes work I’m the lead on and labs I’ve collaborated with for 15 years. They DO NOT have live or dead bats in them. There is no evidence anywhere that this happened. It’s an error I hope will be corrected.”
But that was before he changed his stance to feign ignorance. He said, “We didn’t ask them if they had bats. I wouldn’t be surprised if, like many other virology labs, they were trying to set up a bat colony. I know it’s happening in labs here and in other countries.”
Ultimately, it was revealed that the Wuhan Institute of Virology did keep live bats in cages.