Earlier this week, a firestorm erupted when we helped expose how the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recklessly renewed taxpayer funding for the infamous grant to EcoHealth Alliance (EHA) that bankrolled the Wuhan animal lab and that was wisely cut in early 2020 after we first uncovered it.

Photos of bats being used for cruel and wasteful experiments by EcoHealth Alliance white coats.

Now, as first reported by Elizabeth MacDonald on Fox Business, we’ve filed a new federal complaint documenting how—despite their continued taxpayer funding—the disgraced white coats at EHA are still violating the law and NIH policies with impunity. We’re also joining forces with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) once again to stop the money and stop the madness!

Some quick background: Back in 2020 and 2021, we first exposed how EHA funneled US taxpayer dollars to the Wuhan lab and violated a federal gain-of-function ban. This past January—prompted by a 2021 WCW exposé and pressure from Sen. Ernst and others—federal investigators released a damning report criticizing EHA for breaking laws, misusing tax dollars and recklessly shipping tax money to the Wuhan animal lab with no oversight.

Apparently, the shameless EHA hasn’t learned its lesson, and NIH bureaucrats are failing to hold them accountable. 

In 2021, WCW filed a federal complaint documenting how EHA broke federal law over and over by not publicly disclosing (as required by law since the ‘80s!) how much of your money it shipped to Wuhan and elsewhere.  

Now, we’ve detailed how in 2022 and 2023, EHA press releases promoting its NIH-funded work with the Wuhan lab and other treacherous virus-hunting and animal experimentation in labs around the world have continued to violate the law by failing to report how much taxpayer money was spent.

In the noncompliant press releases identified by WCW, EHA describes how NIH recently gave it a new five-year grant that received $653,000 just last year to capture up to 5,000 wild bats in Southeast Asia, collect wild coronaviruses from the animals, and then perform risky experiments in foreign labs to see if the viruses can infect human cells.

Photo of a bat being used for cruel and wasteful experiments by EcoHealth Alliance white coats.

Unfortunately, despite its scofflaw behavior, our February investigation found that just since the pandemic started—one that EHA likely helped spark!—the group has inexplicably raked in over $46 million of taxpayers’ hard-earned money. Seven million dollars of that new taxpayer money came from the NIH, even though EHA has consistently broken laws and policies governing NIH grants.

We’re continuing our work with lawmakers to crack down on EHA’s reckless spending and animal abuse.

Sen. Ernst has also sent a letter to Acting NIH Director Lawrence Tabak asking him to investigate EHA’s noncompliance and permanently bar them from receiving taxpayer funds.

With WCW’s support, Congress has prohibited funding for EHA’s work in China and Sen. Ernst and Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) introduced bills to completely defund the shady organization.  To improve transparency about federal spending, Sen. Ernst and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) have also introduced the WCW-backed COST Act.

Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay rogue lab funders like EHA!