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Editor’s note: Here’s an excerpt from an article in The BMJ. To read the piece in its entirety, click here.
The work of a task force commissioned by the Lancet into the origins of COVID-19 has folded after concerns about the conflicts of interest of one its members and his ties through a non-profit organization to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Task force chair Jeffrey Sachs, economics professor at Columbia University in New York, told the Wall Street Journal that he had shut down the scientist led investigation into how the COVID-19 pandemic started because of concerns about its links to the EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit organization run by task force member Peter Daszak.
“A lot is going on around the world that is not properly scrutinized or explained to the public,” Sachs told the newspaper, adding that the task force would broaden its scope to examine transparency and government regulation of risky laboratory research.
The decision came as evidence continued to accumulate that Daszak had not always been forthright about his research and his financial ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Daszak now faces increased scrutiny from scientists, the media and members of U.S. Congress.
Read the entire The BMJ article here.
