West Cook News

A veterinarian professor at the University of Illinois has connections to EcoHealth Alliance, the group that proposed “gain of function” research into bat coronaviruses that was later found in Covid-19.

Martha Ann Delaney is based in Brookfield at the Zoological Pathology Program Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory where she serves as Clinical Assistant Professor.

Her online bio states that she has research interests in “infectious diseases of wildlife with a focus on pathogen interactions with the host innate immune system” and is professionally affiliated with the controversial EcoHealth Alliance.

Issues with EcoHealth Alliance have come to a head again after Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has stepped down.

In testimony for a court case initiated by the State of Missouri and other states in the Western District of Louisiana 3 Monroe Division Fauci admitted the NIH had funded research.

“I didn't know it at 4 the time, but I do know now that EcoHealth has a 5 subaward from their original grant that goes to 6 Shi Zhengli at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Fauci said in a recent deposition.

That award was for “gain of function” research.

According to The Intercept, EcoHealth Alliance was behind a proposal to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in which it proposed a so-called “gain of function” in 2018. That is the “subaward” Fauci noted.

The proposal detailed a request for funding for a “proteolytic cleavage site” into bat coronaviruses.

The group sought to insert a “novel furin cleavage site” into bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology where the virus is thought to have originated.

The scientists reportedly sampled the and inserted them into the spikes of SARS-related viruses in the laboratory.

The proposal sought to introduce a function that would allow for transmission to humans via the cells found in the lining of the human airway.

“We will introduce appropriate human-specific cleavage sites and evaluate growth potential in [a type of mammalian cell commonly used in microbiology] and HAE cultures,” the proposal states.  

Alina Chan, a Boston-based scientist, told The Intercept that the proposal is damning in light of what has occurred since 2020.

“Let’s look at the big picture: A novel SARS coronavirus emerges in Wuhan with a novel cleavage site in it. We now have evidence that, in early 2018, they had pitched inserting novel cleavage sites into novel SARS-related viruses in their lab,” Chan said. “This definitely tips the scales for me. And I think it should do that for many other scientists too.”

Those with knowledge of the situation have said the research was ongoing at the time of Covid’s release into the general population.

Scientists have noted that the furin cleavage site in the COVID-19 virus are abnormal, as no other coronavirus in the wild has been noted to have the mutation.

The furin cleavage site, a string of 12 units of RNA that makes up the virus' genetic material, was exactly the right length, according to Robert F. Garry of Tulane University. This level of precision is not seen in nature.

“I just can’t figure out how this gets accomplished in nature … it’s stunning," Garry said in an email. "Of course, in the lab it would be easy to generate the perfect 12-base insert that you wanted,” 

Garry, Edward C. Holmes of the University of Sydney and Michael Farzan at Scripps Research all agreed at the time Covid-19 had been manipulated in a lab to make it viral to humans.

“China knew from day one that this was a genetically engineered agent,” Andrew Huff, a scientist who was previously vice president of Eco Health Alliance, wrote in a forthcoming book.

“The US government is to blame for the transfer of dangerous biotechnology to the Chinese.”

He said it was evident Covid-19 leaked from the Wuhan lab.

“Foreign laboratories did not have the adequate control measures in place for ensuring proper biosafety, biosecurity, and risk management, ultimately resulting in the lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” he said in his book, according to the New York Post.

Given the intense focus on EcoHealth Alliance amid the continuing court case and upcoming hearings on the research in the U.S. House has many, such as the libertarian Heritage Foundation, questioning why the group still is receiving funding.

“According to an unclassified April 2020 State Department memorandum, Shi Zheng Li, the key Wuhan researcher on bat coronaviruses, was paid from the grant money," the Heritage Foundation said.

"Shi, dubbed ‘the Bat Lady,’ in the language of the memo, ‘conducted genetic engineering of bat virus to make it easily transmissible to humans.’”

“This case is far from closed. Congressional investigators must take a deep dive and settle this question. In the meantime, Comer is right: EcoHealth Alliance should not get another red cent of taxpayers’ money.”