- Google’s charity arm, Google.org, has provided financial backing for research and studies carried out by Peter Daszak and his EcoHealth Alliance charity
- The financial ties, which were first reported by The National Pulse , are disclosed in various scientific studies dating back to at least 2010
- Google on Tuesday issued a statement saying the ‘one-off philanthropic grants’ were years old and had nothing to do with COVID
- ‘We have engaged precisely zero times with this organization on any work related to COVID or the Wuhan lab,’ a Google spokesperson said
- Daszak has faced intense scrutiny since it emerged that his charity previously worked with the Wuhan lab accused of being the source of COVID-19
- He has been removed from the COVID-19 commission looking into the origins of the pandemic after it emerged that he tried to gag the Wuhan lab leak theory
- It was not immediately clear how much funding Google has provided over the last decade to Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance
Google funded research carried out by Wuhan-linked scientist Peter Daszak and his charity for more than a decade, it has been revealed.
The tech giant’s charity arm, Google.org, has repeatedly provided financial backing for research and studies carried out by scandal-hit Daszak and his New York-based EcoHealth Alliance.
The financial ties, which were first reported by The National Pulse, are disclosed in various scientific studies between 2010 and 2018.
The studies are not related to COVID-19 or the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Google on Tuesday issued a statement saying: ‘These are ludicrous and baseless conspiracy theories.’
‘The one-off philanthropic grants referenced are years old and had nothing to do with COVID,’ a Google spokesperson said.
‘We have engaged precisely zero times with this organization on any work related to COVID or the Wuhan lab.’
Daszak has faced intense scrutiny since it emerged that his charity previously worked with the Wuhan Institute of Virology – the lab accused of being the source of the COVID-19 outbreak.
EcoHealth Alliance, which was given $39 million from the Pentagon between 2013 and 2020, has also provided funding to the Wuhan lab for its coronavirus research over the years.
The British scientist has since been removed from the COVID-19 commission looking into the origins of the pandemic after it emerged that he initially tried to gag the Wuhan lab leak theory.
A 2010 study on bat flaviviruses that lists Daszak as a co-author credits Google.org for an unspecified amount of funding.
That study was also funded by the National Institutes of Health and the United States Agency for International Development’s emerging pandemic threat program.
A study published in 2014 on henipavirus spillover into human populations also lists Daszak as a co-author.
In the acknowledgement section of the study, it says: ‘Metabiota/Global Viral’s role in this study was supported by Google.org, the Skoll Foundation and in particular the US Agency for
International Development; USAID’s funding was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT program.’
Similarly, a 2015 paper on herpes lists Daszak and also credits Google.org for its support.
More recently, EcoHealth Alliance researchers authored a report on a 2018 study that looked at ‘perceptions associated with transmission of pathogens with pandemic potential in highly exposed human populations at the animal-human interface’.
The report noted it was ‘made possible’ by Google.org’s funding.
By EMILY CRANE
