Rising geopolitical tensions hamper vital US-China scientific collaboration

South China Morning Post discloses that president of the EcoHealth Alliance (EHA) has revealed the severe backlash he has faced due to his research collaborations with Chinese scientists prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A prominent US disease ecologist has reported facing death threats and harassment due to his collaboration with Chinese scientists on virus research prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, likening the experience to a "medieval" witch hunt. Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), shared that he and his organization have endured four years of relentless attacks, both online and in the media, which have also targeted his family.

Daszak recounted a particularly alarming incident in which an envelope containing a suspicious white powder was mailed to his home, and his family members’ names appeared on a "kill list" on the anonymous platform 4chan. "This treatment is neither appropriate nor normal for a scientist, yet there’s zero sympathy for it," Daszak told the Post. He expressed frustration at dealing with the FBI, who, he felt, treated him with suspicion rather than support.

"I haven’t been physically assaulted yet, but I certainly anticipate that, which feels bizarre for a scientist." His long-standing collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) concluded amid allegations linking their research to the emergence of Covid-19. The lab has been at the center of unfounded claims suggesting a leak caused the outbreak in late 2019.

Daszak compared the current climate to historical scapegoating: "It’s reminiscent of medieval times when those who predicted famine would be the first to be punished when it occurred." After the 2003 SARS outbreak, EHA began working with Chinese scientists to identify the wildlife reservoir of the original SARS-CoV, receiving approval from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the State Department. Their collaboration with WIV started in 2005, and EHA has emphasized the importance of their research in understanding the origins of SARS and the risk of future coronavirus outbreaks. 

Since Covid-19 emerged globally in 2020, EHA has faced scrutiny regarding its US-funded research in China and allegations of not adhering to grant protocols. Many of the accusations against EHA are based on the unfounded belief that Covid-19 originated from a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology due to NIH-supported research under an EcoHealth Alliance sub-grant. EHA emphasized that there is no credible scientific evidence to support this claim. The organization’s previously “open and transparent” collaboration was abruptly halted in 2020 when former President Donald Trump cut NIH funding to EHA.

The targeting of scientists with connections to China peaked in 2018 under the Trump administration's China Initiative, which led to investigations of researchers suspected of concealing Chinese ties. However, most cases were quickly dismissed for lack of evidence, and the program ended in 2022. Geopolitical tensions have further complicated collaboration between researchers from the two most scientifically productive nations, despite the mutual benefits. Daszak noted that EHA faced backlash for its partnership with Chinese scientists while other laboratories conducting similar "gain-of-function" research did not face the same scrutiny from US agencies. He pointed out that in 2016, the NIH had determined that the experiments at the Wuhan lab did not meet the definition of gain-of-function and were not subject to a US government pause on such research. 

By Naila Huseynova