Organization:EcoHealth Alliance

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Short description: Non-governmental organization
EcoHealth Alliance
EcoHealth Alliance Logo.svg
AbbreviationEHA
Type501(c)(3) organization
31-1726494
FocusPandemic prevention, Scientific research, One Health, Conservation
Location
  • New York City, New York
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Peter Daszak, President
Website{{{1}}}
Formerly called
Wildlife Trust

EcoHealth Alliance is a US-based[1] non-governmental organization with a stated mission of protecting people, animals, and the environment from emerging infectious diseases. The nonprofit focuses on research aimed at preventing pandemics and promoting conservation in hotspot regions worldwide.

The EcoHealth Alliance focuses on diseases caused by deforestation and increased interaction between humans and wildlife. The organization has researched the emergence of diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Nipah virus, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Rift Valley fever, the Ebola virus, and COVID-19.

EcoHealth Alliance also advises the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Health Organization (WHO) on global wildlife trade, threats of disease, and the environmental damage posed by these.

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, EcoHealth's ties with the Wuhan Institute of Virology were put into question in relation to investigations into the origin of COVID-19.[2][3][4][5] Citing these concerns, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) withdrew funding to the organization in April 2020.[6][7] Significant criticism followed this decision, including a joint letter signed by 77 Nobel laureates and 31 scientific societies. The NIH later reinstated funding to the organization as one of 11 institutions partnering in the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) initiative in August 2020,[8] but all activities funded by the grant remain suspended.[9]

In 2022, the NIH terminated the EcoHealth Alliance grant, stating that "EcoHealth Alliance had not been able to hand over lab notebooks and other records from its Wuhan partner that relate to controversial experiments involving modified bat viruses, despite multiple requests."[10] In 2023, an audit by the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services found that "NIH did not effectively monitor or take timely action to address" compliance problems with the EcoHealth Alliance.[11] In December 2023, the EcoHealth Alliance denied allegations that it double-billed the NIH and United States Agency for International Development for research in China.[12]

History

Founded under the name Wildlife Preservation Trust International in 1971 by British naturalist, author, and television personality, Gerald Durrell, it then became The Wildlife Trust in 1999.[13] In the fall of 2010, the organization changed its name to EcoHealth Alliance.[14] The rebrand reflected a change in the organization's focus, moving solely from a conservation nonprofit, which focused mainly on the captive breeding of endangered species, to an environmental health organization with its foundation in conservation.[15]

The organization held an early professional conservation medicine meeting in 1996.[16] In 2002, they published an edited volume on the field through Oxford University Press: Conservation Medicine: Ecological Health in Practice.[17]

In February 2008, they published a paper in Nature entitled “Global trends in emerging infectious diseases” which featured an early rendition of a global disease hotspot map.[18] Using epidemiological, social, and environmental data from the past 50 years, the map outlined regions of the globe most at risk for emergent disease threats.

EcoHealth Alliance's funding comes mostly from U.S. federal agencies such as the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Agency for International Development.[19][20] Between 2011 and 2020, its annual budget fluctuated between US$9 and US$15 million per year.[21]

COVID-19 pandemic

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, EcoHealth Alliance has been the subject of controversy and increased scrutiny due to its ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)—which has been at the center of speculation since early 2020 that SARS-CoV-2 may have escaped in a lab incident.[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] Prior to the pandemic, EcoHealth Alliance was the only U.S.-based organization researching coronavirus evolution and transmission in China, where they partnered with the WIV, among others.[30] EcoHealth president Peter Daszak co-authored a February 2020 letter in The Lancet condemning "conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin".[31] However, Daszak failed to disclose EcoHealth's ties to the WIV, which some observers noted as an apparent conflict of interest.[32][33] In June 2021, The Lancet published an addendum in which Daszak disclosed his cooperation with researchers in China.[34]

In April 2020, the NIH ordered EcoHealth Alliance to cease spending the remaining $369,819 from its current NIH grant at the request of the Trump administration,[35] pressuring them by stating "it must hand over information and materials from the Chinese research facility to resume funding for suspended grant" in reference to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The canceled grant was supposed to run through 2024.[36] Funding from NIH resumed in August 2020 after an uproar from "77 U.S. Nobel laureates and 31 scientific societies".[8]

Work conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology under an NIH grant to the EHA has been at the center of political controversies during the pandemic. One such controversy centered on whether any experiments conducted under the grant could be accurately described as "gain-of-function" (GoF) research.[37] NIH officials (including Anthony Fauci) unequivocally denied during 2020 congressional hearings that the EHA had conducted GoF research with NIH funding.[38]

In October 2021, the EHA submitted a progress report detailing the results of a past experiment where some laboratory mice lost more weight than expected after being infected with a modified bat coronavirus.[39] The NIH subsequently sent a letter to the congressional House Committee on Energy and Commerce describing this experiment, but did not refer to it as "gain-of-function."[37] Whether such research qualifies as "gain-of-function" is a matter of considerable debate among relevant experts.[40]

Programs

PREDICT

EcoHealth Alliance partners with USAID on the PREDICT subset of USAID's EPT (Emerging Pandemic Threats) program.[41] PREDICT seeks to identify which emerging infectious diseases are of the greatest risk to human health. Many of EcoHealth Alliance's international collaborations with in-country organizations and institutions fall under the PREDICT umbrella. Scientists in the field collect samples from local fauna in order to track the spread of potentially harmful pathogens and to stop them from becoming outbreaks. Scientists also train local technicians and veterinarians in animal sampling and information gathering.

Active countries include Bangladesh, Cameroon, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guinea, India , Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Liberia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, South Sudan, Thailand, Uganda, and Vietnam.

IDEEAL

IDEEAL (Infectious Disease Emergence and Economics of Altered Landscapes Program)[42] attempts to investigate the impact of deforestation and land-use change on the risk of zoonoses in Sabah, Malaysia. This project focuses on the local palm oil industry in particular. The study also offers to the country's corporate leaders and policymakers long-term alternatives to large-scale deforestation. The program is headquartered at the Malaysian Development Health Research Unit (DHRU), which was developed in collaboration with the Malaysian University of Sabah.

Bat Conservation

A growing body of research indicates that bats are an important factor in both ecosystem health and disease emergence. A number of hypotheses have been proposed for the high number of zoonoses that have come from bat populations in recent decades. One group of researchers hypothesized “that flight, a factor common to all bats but to no other mammals, provides an intensive selective force for coexistence with viral parasites through a daily cycle that elevates metabolism and body temperature analogous to the fever response in other mammals. On an evolutionary scale, this host-virus interaction might have resulted in the large diversity of zoonotic viruses in bats, possibly through bat viruses adapting to be more tolerant of the fever response and less virulent to their natural hosts.” [43]

Project Deep Forest

According to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), roughly 18 million acres of forest (roughly the size of Panama) are lost every year due to deforestation.[44] Increased contact between humans and the animal species whose habitat is being destroyed has led to increases in zoonotic disease. EcoHealth Alliance scientists are testing species for pathogens in areas with very little, moderate, and complete deforestation in order to track potential outbreaks. This data is used to promote the preservation of natural lands and diminish the negative effects of land-use change.

Project DEFUSE

Project DEFUSE was a rejected DARPA grant application, which proposed to sample bat coronaviruses from various locations in China.[45] To evaluate whether bat coronaviruses might spill over into the human population, the grantees proposed to create chimeric coronaviruses which were mutated in different locations, before evaluating their ability to infect human cells in the laboratory.[46] One proposed alteration was to modify bat coronaviruses to insert a cleavage site for the Furin protease at the S1/S2 junction of the spike (S) viral protein. Another part of the grant aimed to create noninfectious protein-based vaccines containing just the spike protein of dangerous coronaviruses. These vaccines would then be administered to bats in caves in southern China to help prevent future outbreaks.[45] Co-investigators on the rejected proposal included Ralph Baric from UNC, Linfa Wang from Duke–NUS Medical School in Singapore, and Shi Zhengli from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.[47]

See also

  • Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
  • Wildlife Preservation Canada

References

  1. ↑ Gulland, Anne (2021-06-22). "UK scientist at centre of debate over origin of Covid pandemic 'recuses himself' from inquiry" (in en-GB). The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/uk-scientist-centre-pandemic-origins-debate-removed-inquiry/. 
  2. ↑ McKay, Betsy (25 September 2021). "Covid-19 Panel of Scientists Investigating Origins of Virus Is Disbanded". Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-panel-of-scientists-investigating-origins-of-virus-is-disbanded-11632571202. 
  3. ↑ Lerner, Sharon; Hvistendahl, Mara (7 September 2021). "New Details Emerge About Coronavirus Research at Chinese Lab". The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2021/09/06/new-details-emerge-about-coronavirus-research-at-chinese-lab/. 
  4. ↑ A. Chris Gajilan. "Covid-19 origins: Why the search for the source is vital". CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/19/health/covid-19-origins-documentary/index.html. 
  5. ↑ Hvistendahl, Mara; Lerner, Sharon (1 October 2021). "NIH Bat Coronavirus Grant Report Was Submitted More Than Two Years Late". The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2021/10/01/nih-bat-coronavirus-grant-ecohealth-alliance/. 
  6. ↑ "Funding for Coronavirus Research Study Withdrawn by NIH | Sabin Center for Climate Change Law". climate.law.columbia.edu. https://climate.law.columbia.edu/content/funding-coronavirus-research-study-withdrawn-nih. 
  7. ↑ Aizenman, Nurith (29 April 2020). "Why The U.S. Government Stopped Funding A Research Project On Bats And Coronaviruses" (in en). NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/04/29/847948272/why-the-u-s-government-stopped-funding-a-research-project-on-bats-and-coronaviru. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Andy says (2020-08-27). "NIH awards grant to EcoHealth Alliance after political uproar" (in en-US). https://www.statnews.com/2020/08/27/nih-awards-grant-to-ecohealth-alliance-months-after-uproar-over-political-interference/. 
  9. ↑ ""This Shouldn't Happen": Inside the Virus-Hunting Nonprofit at the Center of the Lab-Leak Controversy". March 31, 2022. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/03/the-virus-hunting-nonprofit-at-the-center-of-the-lab-leak-controversy. 
  10. ↑ Field, Matt (2022-08-24). "NIH to terminate EcoHealth Alliance grant after its Wuhan partners refuse to deliver information on coronavirus studies" (in en-US). https://thebulletin.org/2022/08/nih-to-terminate-ecohealth-alliance-grant-after-its-wuhan-partners-refuse-to-deliver-information-on-coronavirus-studies/. 
  11. ↑ Kaiser, Jocelyn (2023-01-25). "Federal watchdog finds problems with NIH oversight of grant funding bat virus research in China" (in en). Science. doi:10.1126/science.adg8542. 
  12. ↑ Strobel, Warren P. (December 23, 2023). "Investigators Probe Whether U.S. Was Billed Twice for Coronavirus Research in China" (in en-US). https://www.wsj.com/health/investigators-probe-whether-u-s-was-billed-twice-for-coronavirus-research-in-china-ad9378d9. 
  13. ↑ "EcoHealth Alliance - About" (in en-US). http://www.ecohealthalliance.org/about. 
  14. ↑ "Wildlife Trust Rebrands as EcoHealth Alliance". http://www.corporate-eye.com/main/wildlife-trust-rebrands-as-ecohealth-alliance/. 
  15. ↑ SAFE: Save Animals From Extinction. Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust Newsletters.
  16. ↑ Consortium for Conservation Medicine Trifold. Wildlife Trust
  17. ↑ Aguirre, Alonso (2002). Conservation Medicine: Ecological Health in Practice. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195150933. 
  18. ↑ Jones, Kate E.; Patel, Nikkita G.; Levy, Marc A.; Storeygard, Adam; Balk, Deborah; Gittleman, John L.; Daszak, Peter (2008-02-21). "Global trends in emerging infectious diseases" (in en). Nature 451 (7181): 990–993. doi:10.1038/nature06536. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 18288193. Bibcode: 2008Natur.451..990J. 
  19. ↑ Eban, Katherine (June 3, 2021). "The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19's Origins". Vanity Fair. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/the-lab-leak-theory-inside-the-fight-to-uncover-covid-19s-origins. 
  20. ↑ "Carlin EP, Moore MS, Shambaugh E, Karesh WB. Opportunities for Enhanced Defense, Military, and Security Sector Engagement in Global Health Security EcoHealth Alliance. 2021.". https://www.ecohealthalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Opportunities-for-Enhanced-Defense-Military-and-Security-Sector-Engagement-in-Global-Health-Security.pdf. 
  21. ↑ "Financials & Strategy". https://www.ecohealthalliance.org/financials-strategy. 
  22. ↑ Subbaraman, Nidhi (2020-08-21). "'Heinous!': Coronavirus researcher shut down for Wuhan-lab link slams new funding restrictions" (in en). Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-02473-4. PMID 32826989. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02473-4. 
  23. ↑ "Wuhan lab's US partner embroiled in funding debate as Covid-19 'lab leak' row rages on" (in en). 2021-09-16. https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3148834/wuhan-labs-us-partner-embroiled-research-funding. 
  24. ↑ Hakim, Mohamad S. (14 February 2021). "SARS‐CoV‐2, Covid‐19, and the debunking of conspiracy theories". Reviews in Medical Virology 31 (6): e2222. doi:10.1002/rmv.2222. ISSN 1052-9276. PMID 33586302. 
  25. ↑ Frutos, Roger; Gavotte, Laurent; Devaux, Christian A. (March 2021). "Understanding the origin of COVID-19 requires to change the paradigm on zoonotic emergence from the spillover to the circulation model". Infection, Genetics and Evolution 95: 104812. doi:10.1016/j.meegid.2021.104812. PMID 33744401. PMC 7969828. https://europepmc.org/article/pmc/pmc7969828. Retrieved 21 July 2021. 
  26. ↑ "The lab-leak origin claim for COVID-19 is in the news, but it's still fact-free". https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-06-03/lab-leak-covid-origin. 
  27. ↑ Owermohle, Sarah. "Trump cuts U.S. research on bat-human virus transmission over China ties" (in en). POLITICO. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/27/trump-cuts-research-bat-human-virus-china-213076. 
  28. ↑ R, Lu; X, Zhao; J, Li; P, Niu; B, Yang; H, Wu; W, Wang; H, Song et al. (2020-02-22). "Genomic Characterisation and Epidemiology of 2019 Novel Coronavirus: Implications for Virus Origins and Receptor Binding" (in en). Lancet 395 (10224): 565–574. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30251-8. PMID 32007145. 
  29. ↑ Aizenman, Nurith (May 22, 2020). "77 Nobel Laureates Denounce Trump Officials For Pulling Coronavirus Research Grant" (in en). NPR Newd. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/05/22/861299458/77-nobel-laureates-denounce-trump-officials-for-pulling-coronavirus-research-gra. 
  30. ↑ Latinne, Alice; Hu, Ben; Olival, Kevin J.; Zhu, Guangjian; Zhang, Libiao; Li, Hongying; Chmura, Aleksei A.; Field, Hume E. et al. (25 August 2020). "Origin and cross-species transmission of bat coronaviruses in China" (in en). Nature Communications 11 (1): 4235. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-17687-3. ISSN 2041-1723. PMID 32843626. Bibcode: 2020NatCo..11.4235L. 
  31. ↑ Calisher, Charles; Carroll, Dennis; Colwell, Rita; Corley, Ronald B; Daszak, Peter; Drosten, Christian; Enjuanes, Luis; Farrar, Jeremy et al. (March 2020). "Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19". The Lancet 395 (10226): e42–e43. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30418-9. PMID 32087122. 
  32. ↑ The Editorial Board (2021-02-15). "Opinion | Who Are the Covid Investigators?" (in en-US). Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. https://www.wsj.com/articles/who-are-the-covid-investigators-11613401955. 
  33. ↑ Spence, Madeleine. "The rise and fall of British virus hunter Peter Daszak" (in en). The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-rise-and-fall-of-british-virus-hunter-peter-daszak-05q8brpz7. 
  34. ↑ "Addendum: competing interests and the origins of SARS-CoV-2". The Lancet 397 (10293): 2449–2450. June 2021. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01377-5. 
  35. ↑ "Award Information | HHS TAGGS". https://taggs.hhs.gov/Detail/AwardDetail?arg_AwardNum=R01AI110964&arg_ProgOfficeCode=104. 
  36. ↑ "NIH awards $7.5 million grant to EcoHealth Alliance, months after uproar over political interference". 27 August 2020. https://www.statnews.com/2020/08/27/nih-awards-grant-to-ecohealth-alliance-months-after-uproar-over-political-interference/. 
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 Eban, Katherine (22 October 2021). "In Major Shift, NIH Admits Funding Risky Virus Research in Wuhan". Vanity Fair Blogs. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/10/nih-admits-funding-risky-virus-research-in-wuhan. 
  38. ↑ McKay, Betsy (28 October 2021). "Coronavirus Study of Bats in China Met NIH Grant Requirements, EcoHealth Says". Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-study-of-bats-in-china-met-nih-grant-requirements-ecohealth-says-11635441406. 
  39. ↑ Zimmer, Carl; Mueller, Benjamin (21 October 2021). "Bat Research Group Failed to Submit Virus Studies Promptly, N.I.H. Says". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/science/bats-covid-lab-leak-nih.html. 
  40. ↑ "PolitiFact - Ask PolitiFact: What's going on with EcoHealth Alliance, the NIH and coronavirus research?". @politifact. https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/oct/28/ask-politifact-what-does-nih-letter-say-about-gain/. 
  41. ↑ "Emerging Pandemic Threats | Fact Sheet | U.S. Agency for International Development". May 24, 2016. https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/fact-sheets/emerging-pandemic-threats-program. 
  42. ↑ "EcoHealth Alliance - IDEEAL" (in en-US). https://www.ecohealthalliance.org/program/ideeal. 
  43. ↑ al., T. J. O’Shea et (2014). "Bat Flight and Zoonotic Viruses - Volume 20, Number 5—May 2014 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC". Emerging Infect. Dis. 20 (5): 741–5. doi:10.3201/eid2005.130539. PMID 24750692. 
  44. ↑ "PSU - Civic Issues" (in en-US). https://sites.psu.edu/rcl2jacobsciosciaissues/2016/02/19/deforestation/. 
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 Federman, Daniel Engber, Adam (25 September 2021). "The Lab-Leak Debate Just Got Even Messier" (in en). The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/09/lab-leak-pandemic-origins-even-messier/620209/. 
  46. ↑ Zimmer, Carl; Mueller, Benjamin (21 October 2021). "Bat Research Group Failed to Submit Virus Studies Promptly, N.I.H. Says". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/science/bats-covid-lab-leak-nih.html. 
  47. ↑ "The Mysterious Case of the COVID-19 Lab-Leak Theory". The New Yorker. 12 October 2021. https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/the-mysterious-case-of-the-covid-19-lab-leak-theory. Retrieved 29 October 2021. 

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