US scientist and family appear on a ‘kill list’ for working with China

 A leading US disease ecologist says he has faced death threats and harassment because of his work with Chinese scientists on virus research before the Covid-19 pandemic – an experience he describes as a “medieval” witch hunt.

Peter Daszak, president of scientific research organisation EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), said he and the non-profit had endured four years of “relentless” and “damaging” attacks, online and in the press, including actions directed at him and his family.

He said an envelope containing white powder had been sent to his home address in the United States, while the names of his children and wife had appeared on a “kill list” on 4chan, an anonymous online forum.






“That is not appropriate or normal for a scientist to be put through. And you get zero sympathy for this,” Daszak told the Post in an interview

“You talk to the FBI to try and help. They are the same guys investigating you and do not believe that you did not do something wrong. It is awful.”

“No one has come and punched me in the face yet, or shot me. But I am certainly expecting that – which is weird as a scientist,” he said.

Daszak’s decades-long scientific partnership with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) ended after allegations that their research caused the Covid-19 pandemic. The laboratory has been at the centre of unproven claims that a leak led to the Chinese city’s first Covid-19 outbreak at the end of 2019.
“It takes me back to medieval times, almost,” Daszak said. “When the person that predicted there might be a famine the next year, when it happened, they were the first ones to be strung up. It feels like that is what is happening here.”

A year after the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), New York-based EHA, which researches emerging disease threats, began working with scientists in China to identify the wildlife reservoir of the original Sars-CoV and assess the likelihood of a similar coronavirus causing a global outbreak.


A leading US disease ecologist says he has faced death threats and harassment because of his work with Chinese scientists on virus research before the Covid-19 pandemic – an experience he describes as a “medieval” witch hunt.
Peter Daszak, president of scientific research organisation EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), said he and the non-profit had endured four years of “relentless” and “damaging” attacks, online and in the press, including actions directed at him and his family.

He said an envelope containing white powder had been sent to his home address in the United States, while the names of his children and wife had appeared on a “kill list” on 4chan, an anonymous online forum.

“That is not appropriate or normal for a scientist to be put through. And you get zero sympathy for this,” Daszak told the Post in an interview

“You talk to the FBI to try and help. They are the same guys investigating you and do not believe that you did not do something wrong. It is awful.”

“No one has come and punched me in the face yet, or shot me. But I am certainly expecting that – which is weird as a scientist,” he said.

Daszak’s decades-long scientific partnership with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) ended after allegations that their research caused the Covid-19 pandemic. The laboratory has been at the centre of unproven claims that a leak led to the Chinese city’s first Covid-19 outbreak at the end of 2019.
“It takes me back to medieval times, almost,” Daszak said. “When the person that predicted there might be a famine the next year, when it happened, they were the first ones to be strung up. It feels like that is what is happening here.”

A year after the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), New York-based EHA, which researches emerging disease threats, began working with scientists in China to identify the wildlife reservoir of the original Sars-CoV and assess the likelihood of a similar coronavirus causing a global outbreak.

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