NIH renews grant to EcoHealth for coronavirus research despite controversy.

NIH Reactivates Grant to Study Origins of Deadly Viruses

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has reactivated a federal grant of $576,290 to EcoHealth Alliance to study the origins of deadly viruses like SARS, MERS, and COVID-19. The grant was previously terminated in April 2020 due to concerns about collaborative laboratory research with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIH). The renewed grant will be administered through the NIH’s National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and will focus on understanding how bat-origin coronaviruses jump into the human population.

The move has sparked controversy, with one Republican lawmaker calling it “absolutely reckless.” However, the NIH argues that understanding the origins of coronaviruses is crucial to public health and biosecurity. The grant will be conducted outside of China and in conjunction with a Singapore-based health facility, with additional oversight mechanisms applied by NIH.

EcoHealth Alliance has issued a celebratory statement, stating that the decision reflects a reversal of the previous termination and suspension of the grant. However, critics argue that EcoHealth Alliance has not been contrite about their failures and has refused to cooperate with Congress in their attempts to get information about the research they were doing at the Wuhan Institute.

Despite the controversy, the renewed grant will allow researchers to identify high-spillover risk bat SARSr-CoV sequences in southern China, conduct community- and clinic-based surveillance of archived pre-COVID-19 human samples, and characterize SARSr-CoV binding, ability to evade therapeutics/vaccines, and identify spillover hotspots.

NIH Reactivates Grant to Study Origins of Deadly Viruses

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has reactivated a federal grant of $576,290 to EcoHealth Alliance to study the origins of deadly viruses like SARS, MERS, and COVID-19. The grant was previously terminated in April 2020 due to concerns about collaborative laboratory research with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIH). The renewed grant will be administered through the NIH’s National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and will focus on understanding how bat-origin coronaviruses jump into the human population.

Controversy Surrounding the Grant

The move has sparked controversy, with one Republican lawmaker calling it “absolutely reckless.” However, the NIH argues that understanding the origins of coronaviruses is crucial to public health and biosecurity. The grant will be conducted outside of China and in conjunction with a Singapore-based health facility, with additional oversight mechanisms applied by NIH.

EcoHealth Alliance has issued a celebratory statement, stating that the decision reflects a reversal of the previous termination and suspension of the grant. However, critics argue that EcoHealth Alliance has not been contrite about their failures and has refused to cooperate with Congress in their attempts to get information about the research they were doing at the Wuhan Institute.

What the Renewed Grant Will Allow Researchers to Do

Despite the controversy, the renewed grant will allow researchers to:

• Identify high-spillover risk bat SARSr-CoV sequences in southern China
• Conduct community- and clinic-based surveillance of archived pre-COVID-19 human samples
• Characterize SARSr-CoV binding, ability to evade therapeutics/vaccines, and identify spillover hotspots

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