Family members of people who died from COVID-19 have sued a New York-based nonprofit organization that collaborated with and helped fund the Chinese laboratory that was exploring how to make coronaviruses more transmissible and infectious.
The suit names EcoHealth Alliance and Peter Daszak, its president, as defendants, alleging they researched, funded, and created the COVID-19 virus and released it intentionally or accidentally.
Jenny Golden and other U.S. residents brought the lawsuit in New York over the deaths of their loved ones, which they say could have been prevented.
The defendants engaged in conduct that presented foreseeable risks of harm to others, including “deliberately engaging in the creation and genetic modification of dangerous coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, for the purpose of enhancing their virulence, transmissibility and lethality for human beings, knowing that as modified the coronaviruses would be even more harmful to humans and capable of causing a pandemic,” the suit states.
EcoHealth funneled U.S. taxpayer funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), located in the same Chinese city where the first COVID-19 cases appeared in 2019.
“This occurred because EcoHealth’s policies and procedures did not ensure that the required data elements were included on each subaward,” the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general said. In one instance of failure, EcoHealth didn’t submit a progress report for a year of research until August 2021, nearly two years after it was required.
Defendants had a responsibility to make sure research at the lab “was carried out reasonably” and to “refrain from actions which created an unreasonable risk of physical harm to others,” the suit alleges. That includes protecting the public from the risks of exposure to coronaviruses.
That responsibility was breached by the “abnormally dangerous research on coronaviruses,” plaintiffs charged.
“The defendants knew or should have known that the negligent, reckless or intentional conduct of others engaging in the coronavirus research funded by the defendants, including that of Dr. Shi Zheng-Li and other scientists at the WIV laboratories who intended to genetically modify coronaviruses to enhance their virulence, transmissibility and lethality for human beings, created an unreasonable risk of harm to others,” the suit states.
The failure to monitor and protect against the release of COVID-19 led to the fatal COVID-19 infections of relatives of the plaintiffs, according to the suit.
Larry Carr, the husband of plaintiff Melissa Carr, died on Aug. 11, 2021, after contracting COVID-19.
Mary Conroy, the mother of plaintiff Ms. Golden, died on Aug. 12, 2021, after contracting COVID-19.
Emma Holley, the mother of plaintiff Monique Adam, died on Aug. 12, 2021, after contracting COVID-19.
Raul Osuna, the husband of plaintiff Traci Osuna, died on Sept. 28, 2021, after contracting COVID-19.
Each death was “a direct and proximate result of medical complications caused by an infection of the virus which is now known as Covid-19 (also called SARS-CoV-2),” the suit states.
Paul Rinker, the other plaintiff, is seeking recompense for personal injuries he suffered after contracting COVID-19 and requiring hospital care.
The case was filed in New York Supreme Court.
The plaintiffs want damages awarded to them, as well as other monetary relief that is deemed enough to “prevent Defendants and others from ever again committing the dangerous acts related to the development and release of SARS-CoV-2 or similar acts.”
EcoHealth has defended its work with the Wuhan lab. The organization didn’t respond to a request for comment.
EcoHealth said in a previous statement that it “did monitor the subawardee experiments in question exactly as required by the conditions” in the grant, and that the viruses studied at the lab couldn’t have caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
Previous Suits
Two previous suits have been brought against EcoHealth and Mr. Daszak.Mercy Vega and other plaintiffs earlier this year said that the defendants violated the law by being negligent and conspiring in their work in China.
The suit alleged wrongful deaths and personal injuries took place as a result, including to Ms. Vega’s husband, Sergio Vega, who died after contracting COVID-19.
In the other suit, filed in 2022, Kathleen McKinnis and others alleged personal injuries in a suit that named EcoHealth, Mr. Daszak, and several other researchers.
