FBI Told Border Agents Not to Stop Researcher Daszak in 2021

The FBI instructed U.S. Customs and Border Protection not to stop Peter Daszak at JFK Airport on February 5, 2021, New York Post reported. Daszak was scheduled to arrive from Doha, Qatar, after participating in a World Health Organization investigation into the origins of the pandemic.

Internal CBP emails from January and February 2021 described Daszak as an extremely high person of interest because of his funding of research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. One email stated that Daszak was responsible for directing NIH grant money to the institute. Another noted that much of the funding he received supported gain-of-function research.

CBP officers had prepared to question Daszak about his selection for the WHO team, his contacts with institute personnel, whether he had visited the lab, and whether he brought biological samples back to the United States. An internal document also recorded that NIH had publicly asked Daszak to retrieve an original type-specimen used by the institute for genetic analysis and return it to the United States.

The same document stated that Daszak called the requirements outrageous and did not appear likely to comply.

Daszak served as principal investigator on an NIH grant titled Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence that exceeded $4 million. More than $500,000 of that grant went directly to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He had collaborated with institute virologist Shi Zhengli for more than a decade.

On Monday, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul released the emails and said he would publish additional COVID-era records through a public Reading Room. The Department of Health and Human Services later banned EcoHealth Alliance, the nonprofit Daszak led, from receiving U.S. funding for five years beginning in January 2025.