Exciting news from @EcoHealthNYC: @NIH has reissued our @NIAIDNews grant R01AI110964 “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence” 3 yrs & 2 days after it was terminated! The statement below links to the full project details: ecohealthalliance.org/2023/05/collab…
This effectively lifts the suspension on our grant that involved collaboration in China w/ Wuhan Institute of Virology, & was terminated on April 2020 ‘for convenience’. 2/
politico.com/news/2020/04/2…
In August 2022 @NIH revised their decision, terminating only the WIV subcontract. They offered to renegotiate the specific aims & we have now come to agreement w/ NIH on modified goals – details follow. 3/
ecohealthalliance.org/wp-content/upl…
The original goals were based on a very successful 5 yr project that published 18 papers incl. 2 in @Nature & a review in @CELL. Our work showed bats across Southeast Asia harbor an extraordinary diversity of SARSr-CoVs. 4/
We found that some bat-CoVs could infect human cells in the lab, cause SARS-like illness in lab animals, & evade drugs, vaccines monoclonal antibody therapies available at the time. 5/
nature.com/articles/natur…
In our studies of rural communities in China, people showed antibodies to bat-CoVs & we estimate that a median of ~66,000 people in S & SE Asia are infected by bat SARSr-CoVs each year, representing a substantial public health risk. 6/
nature.com/articles/s4146…
Original goals of renewed 5 yr grant were 1) identify diversity of bat-CoVs in bats in China 2) work in communities/clinics to identify risk behaviors/occupations linked to seropositivity or clinical illness 3) identify ‘prepandemic’ CoVs for vaccines/drug design. 7/
Our modified goals remain true to original R01 renewal: characterize CoV spillover risk to understand: Why bat-origin CoVs are such a risk for human epidemics? What drives their diversity & recombination? What behaviors put people at risk? We have 3 modified Specific Aims. 8/
Aim 1) Characterize & analyze >300 new full genomes/large genome segments of SARSr-CoVs from our archived bat samples to identify what drives CoV recombination & single out viral strains w/ high predicted risk of spillover. 9/
Aim 2) Analyze archived human samples from our prior community- & clinic-based syndromic surveillance to identify serological evidence of spillover & PCR evidence of illness. Assess which behavioral/occupational risk factors drive spillover, illness, spread. 10/
Aim 3) Using computer modeling & binding assays to characterize zoonotic potential of novel bat-CoVsthen analyze viral characteristics, host reservoir, epidemiological & ecological correlations to map hotspots of future CoV spillover risk. 11/
Details of our planned work in this modified re-issued award are available in our Story Map 12/
storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/8213ac…
Our modified aims involve 1) Work at @EcoHealthNYC & @dukenus; no other foreign subcontracts. 2) No new bat/human sample collection. 3) In vitro binding assays instead of recombinant virus expts. 4) Bat-CoV culture work at BSL-3 not BSL-2. 5) Additional oversight measures. 13/
Our work will benefit public health via: 1) Maps of spillover hotspots for surveillance. 2) Data on what drives bat-CoV recombination. 3) Occupational/behavioral risk data to disrupt emergence. 4) Sequences/isolates to help design drugs/vaccines/therapies against future CoVs 14/
Our results will feed directly into the work EcoHealth Alliance is doing w/ communities on frontline in spillover hotspots to reduce high-risk contact w/ wildlife, reduce unsustainable wildlife trade & better manage our land use. 15/
Because of intense public interest in our work, we have released full details of all modifications to our original award. That includes Notice of Award from @NIH incl. budget details. 16/
ecohealthalliance.org/wp-content/upl…
Full details of the Specific Aims, Public Health Statement & Project Summary are available below, as posted on NIH RePORTER. 17/
ecohealthalliance.org/wp-content/upl…
We are grateful that this grant has been released. It’s important to remember that the termination of our original award caused a stir in the scientific community. 18/
science.org/content/articl…
Its termination was widely condemned because 1) our award fit NIAID’s & NIH’s stated goals; 2) it was independently reviewed & ranked in top 3% of proposals; 3) its specific aims targeted exactly the type of events that led to COVID-19 pandemic. 19/ science.org/content/articl…
The termination seemed to have been hastily prepared & ignored appropriate norms, as reported by @HHSOIG who called it ‘improper’ in Jan 2023 Audit report 20/
oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/re…
Subsequent actions taken on @EcoHealthNYC’s award of imposing near-impossible demands as a condition for releasing funding were also condemned 21/
wsj.com/articles/nih-p…
This is likely the first time @NIH terminated a specific grant at the orders of a US President for clearly political reasons. This led to substantial criticism, including a letter signed by 81 Nobel Laureates 22/
nlcampaigns.org/NL_letter_fina…
We therefore would like to thank many brave people who spoke out during the last 3½ yrs to support our work & defend integrity of science funding. Some became targets themselves. You have the deepest gratitude from me, my family, all @EcoHealthNYC staff & our collaborators. 23/
That includes @bwcorb who organized @ASBMB & >30 organizations to protest. 24/ cnn.com/2020/04/30/opi…
It also includes Steven Chu, Claire Fraser, Sudip Parikh of @aaas; @theNAMedicine @nasem; Coalition for the Life Sciences; @ASTMH; @ResearchAmerica; & @reluctantlyjoe who coordinated a letter from @covid19ny signed by 29 orgs & >300 scientists – too many to fit on a tweet! 25/
Our sincere thanks to (among many): Sir Rich Roberts, Jerry Keusch @BU_Tweets @neidl @PeterHotez Program staff at NIAID @TarterKrinsky @HumeField @soniashah @PhilippMarkolin @angie_rasmussen & other “zoonati” @Info_Rosalie @cmmorel @WHO COVID origins team @past_is_future .. 26/
..sincere thanks to @RickABright @stgoldst @stuartjdneil @MarionKoopmans @kevinfolta @saleem_ali @EckerleIsabella @Samuel_Gregson @edwardcholmes @EcoHealthNYC’s Board @robertkessler @DavidQuammen The original “Lancet” taskforce on COVID origins ... 27/
..& sincere thanks to all of our other supporters, donors and colleagues, including those of you brave enough to follow us on Twitter & to ignore the negativity! 28/
We acknowledge the brave donors who stepped in to fund our work despite negative press, incl. The Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust, The Whitehead Foundation, @mizliz1011 Catherine Murray Smith, Pamela Thye, The Wallace Fund, & an Anonymous Donor c/o Schwab Charitable. 29/
We've now re-started our work & look forward to answering the key questions re. bat-origin CoVs – why do they spill over & how can we disrupt them? We will share our results with you along the way & continue doing our part to protect people, wildlife & the planet 30/
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