The chairman of a COVID-19 origins task force affiliated with the Lancet scientific journals has disbanded the commission over its ties to controversial researcher Peter Daszak and his EcoHealth Alliance.
Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs told the Wall Street Journal on Saturday that he was concerned with the links to Daszak, who led the task force until recusing himself from that role in June.
Daszak, who lives in New York, devoted his career to championing so-called 'gain of function' research to engineer coronavirus to be more deadly to humans, arguing that it was the best chance to detect and prevent a global pandemic.
Shocking documents released this week revealed his 2018 proposal to help the Wuhan Institute of Virology engineer bat coronaviruses to be more deadly, by inserting genetic features that are similar to those found in SARS-CoV-2.
Peter Daszak is seen in China participating in the WHO investigation into the origins of COVID-19. The Lancet origins panel has been disbanded over its ties to Daszak
New documents show Daszak's 'Project DEFUSE' funding request to DARPA, seeking $14.2 million to fund gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses with the Wuhan lab
There is still no conclusive proof as to whether COVID-19, a coronavirus linked to bats, first jumped to humans from a wild animal or in a lab setting.
But from the early days of the pandemic, Daszak has made every effort to paint the lab origin hypothesis as a 'conspiracy theory,' including masterminding a letter in the Lancet that established a veneer of scientific consensus that natural origin was the only possibility.
If the virus did emerge from a lab performing the experiments he championed, it would be a crushing blow to Daszak's research. Natural origin, on the other hand, would vindicate his life's work seeking to prevent the next pandemic.
Several members of the disbanded Lancet task force have collaborated with Daszak or EcoHealth Alliance on projects in the past.
'I just didn't want a task force that was so clearly involved with one of the main issues of this whole search for the origins, which was EcoHealth Alliance,' Dr. Sachs told the Journal.
Sachs said a new Lancet Covid-19 Commission would continue studying the origins for a report to be published in mid-2022, but broaden its scope to include input from other experts on biosafety concerns, including risky laboratory research.
It comes just days after the release of bombshell documents showing Daszak's 2018 funding request to the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) seeking $14.2 million to fund gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab.
Peter Daszak, right, and other members of the World Health Organization team investigating the origins of COVID-19 arrive at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in February
A worker is seen inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan in a file photo. A shocking grant proposal reveals Daszak's plans to help the Wuhan lab engineer bat coronaviruses to be more deadly
The proposal, titled Project DEFUSE, was leaked to independent researchers with the DRASTIC research team.
In it Daszak requests funding for an elaborate project to genetically enhance
