Sarah Knapton/European correspondent.
Dr Peter Daszak is accused of trying to shut down the theory that coronavirus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology
A British zoologist involved in risky bat coronavirus experiments in Wuhan is accused of plotting with a senior US health official to shut down the theory that Covid-19 leaked from a lab.
Dr Peter Daszak, the former president of EcoHealth Alliance, sent bottles of wine to David Morens, thanking him for his “behind the scenes shenanigans” and promising further gifts, such as dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants, US court documents state.
Morens, 78, a former employee at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and adviser to Dr Anthony Fauci, this week pleaded guilty to conspiring to evade public records laws and conceal government documents related to grant research funding and the Covid-19 pandemic.
He is facing five years in jail. No charges have been brought against Dr Daszak.
Prof Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, who has called for a lab leak scenario to be fully investigated, said: “Morens’s guilty pleas is an important first step in holding accountable the US officials who funded the reckless research in Wuhan.”
In a signed plea agreement, Morens admitted contacting Dr Daszak – named throughout as co-conspirator 1 – using his private Gmail account so that the messages could not be found through freedom of information requests.
Morens also promised to help Dr Daszak win back grant funding for his bat coronavirus experiments in China, which had been suspended in April 2020, over fears that the research may have caused the pandemic.
Covid-19 emerged just eight miles from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) where Dr Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance had been working with scientists to collect and genetically tweak bat coronaviruses to see how they might mutate and jump into humans.
In June 2020, emails show that Morens agreed to write a “scientific commentary” outlining the importance of Dr Daszak’s work, while keeping the zoologist’s name out of the article, giving the impression it was wholly independent.
He told Dr Daszak via email: “Let’s win this anti-science battle, get you refunded… then settle the scores and kick some ass.”
A couple of weeks later, court documents show Dr Daszak sent two bottles of The Prisoner Red Napa Valley wine to Morens with the message: “This is the first of what I hope will be a continued series of expressions of gratitude for your advice, support and behind the scenes shenanigans in my battle against your bosses boss, his boss and the ultimate boss on the hill (referring to Donald Trump).”
The next month, Morens published an article titled The Origin of Covid-19 and Why It Matters, in which he argued that Covid-19 was a “natural” spillover from animals and called for work such as Dr Daszak’s to be funded to prevent another pandemic.
A press release from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland said that Morens and his co-conspirators had pledged to help “counter the narrative that Covid-19 leaked from a lab”.
Last year, the US Department of Health and Human Services debarred Dr Daszak, and US-based EcoHealth Alliance, blocking both from receiving federal funds for five years.
It followed an eight-month investigation which concluded that taxpayer money had been used to facilitate dangerous gain-of-function research in China to make viruses more lethal.
Dr Daszak visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2021 as part of a team dispatched by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to investigate the source of the coronavirus pandemic.
It came amid criticism of China for being slow to respond to calls to identify where the SARS-CoV-2 emerged and how it spread.
The WHO report Dr Daszak helped write claimed a lab leak origin for Covid was a possibility, but unlikely. The report was widely condemned as a “whitewash”.
Dr Daszak later recused himself from Covid origin investigations for failing to declare that he worked closely with scientists at WIV.
Viscount Ridley, co-author of the book Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19, said: “The record shows that Peter Daszak boasted about channelling huge sums of money to dangerous gain-of-function experiments on Sars-like viruses in Wuhan, concealed the existence of a plan to add a crucial feature to such viruses in 2018 and then, when the pandemic broke out in Wuhan the next year, did his utmost to kill any investigation into the possibility that a laboratory accident killed millions of people.
“He instigated a misleading letter to the Lancet, plotted with the Wuhan Institute of Virology to shut down legitimate scientific queries, and schemed relentlessly to blacken the reputation of scientists. It is time he was held to account.”
US court documents outlining the case stated that the conspirators had “concealed their communications” so they could publish papers and articles without directly mentioning Dr Daszak, “to generate the appearance of disinterested scientific consensus”.
Morens told Dr Daszak that he was working “behind the scenes” to help him, adding: “My boxing gloves are on and laced up.”
In 2024, the US House oversight committee released emails between Dr Daszak and Morens in which the pair spoke about the importance of hiding their correspondence.
In one email sent in June 2020, Morens complained that freedom of information requests were “dreadful and paranoia inducing”.
But he added: “We are all smart enough to know to never have smoking guns, and if we did we wouldn’t put them in emails, and if we found them we’d delete them.”
He also boasted that he could “make emails disappear after I am FOIA’d”.
In another email in June 2021, Morens wrote: “The best way to avoid FOIA hassles is to delete all emails when you learn a subject is getting sensitive.”
Morens reached a deal with prosecutors and entered a guilty plea in the US District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Tuesday.
Paula Xinis, a US district judge, set sentencing for Nov 12. In addition to a five-year prison sentence, Morens could face a fine of up to $250,000.
At a recent Senate hearing, Dr Fauci, who led the US pandemic response, was questioned over his relationship with Morens, but chose to exercise his Fifth Amendment right to avoid implicating himself.
He has previously told a House committee that Morens’s actions were wrong and that he played no part in attempting to get the grant restored.
Dr Daszak, who now works for Nature Health Global, has been approached for comment.
