New Bat Virus Identified in Thailand
- by Carolyn Hendler, JD
- Published January 22, 2024
- Environment
Eco-Health Alliance, the New York-based non-profit that used U.S. government money to fund gain- of-function research on coronaviruses in bats at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), research that has been implicated in the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, recently announced that a new virus has been identified in bats in Thailand.1 2
Dr. Peter Daszak, president of Eco-Health Alliance, announced the discovery of the unnamed virus during a meeting on future pandemic research preparedness held by the World Health Organization (WHO). Daszek explained that the virus, which he claims has the potential to infect humans like the SARS-CoV-2 virus, was found in a cave used by farmers to gather bat feces for fertilizer. Lab analysis showed that the virus is a close relative of SARS-CoV-2 and RATG13 and is a 96 percent genetic match for the former.3 4
Daszek said:
We found a lot of SARS-related coronaviruses, but one in particular we found was quite common in bats where people were commonly exposed… We consider this to be a potential zoonotic pathogen. Here we have a virus in bats, right now in a cave used by people highly exposed to bat faeces. And this virus is shed in bat faeces, so there is a real potential for emergence.5
Daszek believes that the high rates of SARS-CoV-2 infections, along with high COVID vaccination rates in the area where the new virus was discovered, offers some protection to the local population.6
Eco-Health Alliance Continues Hunting for New Bat Viruses
Despite the mounting evidence that the COVID pandemic began when gain-of-function research was being conducted on coronaviruses in a Chinese lab contracted by EcoHealth Alliance, the organization has continued hunting for bat and other animal viruses in Thailand and other parts of Asia using millions of dollars from U.S. government grants, including a recent grant in the amount of $650,000.7 8
Many scientists are concerned that these hunting expeditions, which involve newly discovered viruses sent to a lab for testing, create a heightened risk of causing future pandemics. The testing of this new bat virus is especially concerning because the lab where it has been processed has even less security than the biohazard lab in Wuhan.9
Daszak has been staunchly opposed to the lab leak theory of the origin of SARS-CoV-2. He claims the novel coronavirus had natural origins and crossed species from bats to humans. Daszek appears to have played a key role in the early dismissal of the lab leak theory as he helped organize a statement signed by 27 scientists and published in the Lancet condemning the idea that the pandemic may not have had a natural origin. He called any speculation that the SARS-CoV-2 virus leaked from a lab a “conspiracy theory.”10 11
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