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A British scientist working in the United States (US) said that he faced death threats and harassment due to his work with Chinese scientists on virus research before the Covid pandemic broke out in 2020. According to a report by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Sunday (Sep 29), the scientist was identified as Peter Daszak.

Daszak is the president of the EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), a New York-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) focusing on pandemic prevention, scientific research, and other areas.

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He was also a member of the World Health Organization's (WHO) team tasked with investigating the origins of Covid.

As per the SCMP report, Daszak said that he and EcoHealth Alliance endured four years of relentless and damaging attacks online and also in the press. The scientist said that attacks were also directed at his family.

Family's names appear on 'kill list'

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Daszak said that an envelope containing white powder had been sent to his home in the US. Meanwhile, the names of his wife and children appeared on a "kill list" on 4chan, an anonymous online forum.

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“That is not appropriate or normal for a scientist to be put through," he told the SCMP. 

“You talk to the FBI to try and help. They are the same guys investigating you and do not believe that you did not do something wrong. It is awful,” he added. 

Why the growing trouble for Daszak?

One year after the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), EHA started working with Chinese scientists to identify the wildlife reservoir of the original Sars-CoV and assess the likelihood of a similar coronavirus causing a global outbreak.

The EHA's partnership with China’s leading virology lab in Wuhan (the Wuhan Institute of Virology aka WIV) began in 2005 with approval from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the State Department.

However, when the Covid pandemic caused global mayhem in 2020, the EHA faced flak for its US-funded coronavirus research in China, with questions over whether it followed grant protocols or conducted risky research.

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The SCMP report further said that Daszak's partnership with the WIV ended after allegations surfaced that their research caused the Covid pandemic.

The EHA report responding to allegations

Recently, the EHA  wrote a report responding to allegations from the US House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. 

“Many of [the claims levelled against EHA] are built on the false assumption that Covid-19 emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology because of a lab leak during research supported by the NIH under a sub-grant from EcoHealth Alliance: There is not a scintilla of verifiable scientific evidence for this,” the NGO said in the report.

The “open and transparent” scientific collaboration ended abruptly when former US president Donald Trump terminated NIH funding to EHA in 2020, it added.

(With inputs from agencies)