Republican Congressman failed to convince National Medical College (NAM) to expel one of its members, conservation biologist Peter Daszak. The NALF concluded in an email to its members that “no evidence” suggests that Daszak violated his code of conduct, as delegates said in their complaint to the NALF .
National Medical College Headquarters
Complaints show that Daszak has some connection with the mysterious origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Daszak runs EcoHealth Alliance, a research nonprofit organization, which works with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China. The Chinese institute has been under rigorous scrutiny. Although there is no direct evidence that WIV is related to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 , some U.S. House members insisted that the virus leaked from the laboratory, and may even be designed by scientists at the institute.
Non-aligned movement usually keeps its behavioral investigations confidential, but Science magazine obtained an email from people not related to the investigation to explain the decision to members. The code of conduct for the non-aligned movement was recently updated to document this decision. The email sent by the leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement on October 26 said the group convened a conduct review committee to investigate allegations against Dazak and officials accepted the advice to relieve him of his guilt.
Daszak
Daszak refuses to comment on the details of the allegations or the investigation and decision of NAM. “As the NAL movement conducted this review under strict confidentiality, I was unable to share the letters from the NAL movement notifying me of their decision,” Dazak told Science.
But the complaint that initiated the investigation was a public document. On November 30, 2021, three members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee—R.C.C.M.M.M.R.G. (R.W.A.), Republican Chairman Cathy McMurris Rogers (R.W.A.), Brett Guthrie (Kentucky ) and Morgan Griffith (R.V.A.)—sent a 16-page letter to the Non-Aligned Movement, focusing on the grants received by EcoHealth from National Institutes of Health, which includes a sub-reward for WIV. Delegates asked the Non-Aligned Movement to investigate whether Dazak should be fired from the prestigious institution, which elected him as a member in 2018.
Representatives made a long list of charges in the letter. They argued that Daszak "repeatedly and intentionally" refused to share data related to grants, "acted in a way that ran counter to responsible scientific research behaviors", refused to cooperate with Congress' demands, and "prove political arguments rather than measuring scientific analysis." They believe he made the hypothesis that the pandemic began due to the natural transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from animals to humans and actively denies the potential role of WIV and possible laboratory-related events. They asserted that his behavior “effectively shut down all scientific discussions about the origin of the pandemic in the early days of the outbreak”.
accusations of Daszak letter
Some of the issues raised in the letter were also rigorously reviewed in the interim “Minority Supervisor” report released by Senator Richard Burr (RNC), the chief Republican of the bipartisan committee investigating the origins of the pandemic. The report concluded that the pandemic likely started when the virus escaped from WIV in some way - many scientists dismissed it.
A member of the Non-Aligned Movement who confirmed the validity of the disclaimer email but declined to be named said it was obvious that the request for investigation was "frivolous and political" from the outset. The member was also angry that the Republicans who filed the complaint later revealed that the Non-Aligned Movement agreed to launch an investigation, violating the confidentiality of the procedure. “The rest of us are scrambling to speak out and keep silent about it,” the member of the Non-Aligned Movement said.
Another member of the Non-Aligned Movement who asked not to be named said the complaint reflects some Republicans' wish to blame China for the epidemic.“I think it’s very bad for pandemic preparation,” the member said. "We need international cooperation to effectively respond to the pandemic."
