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A British scientist involved in animal experiments at the Chinese lab suspected of being behind the Covid-19 outbreak has been accused of plotting with a US health official to muzzle the theory.

US court documents allege zoologist Dr Peter Daszak conspired with David Morens to disrupt suspicions that the research may have caused the global pandemic.

They claim the former president of US-based non-governmental organisation EcoHealth Alliance sent bottles of wine to Morens, then a senior figure at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to thank him for ‘behind the scenes shenanigans’.

Other gifts supposedly offered to the official, who offered to get Dr Daszak’s work ‘re-funded’, included dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants.

Morens, 78 - a former advisor to Dr Anthony Fauci, who led the US pandemic response – is facing up to five years in jail after pleading guilty on Tuesday to conspiring to evade public records laws and conceal government documents connected to research funding and the Covid-19 outbreak.

Molecular biologist Professor Richard Ebright, who is based at Rutgers University in New Jersey and has campaigned for a full investigation into the lab leak theory, told the Telegraph: ‘Morens' guilty plea is an important step in holding accountable US officials who funded the reckless research in Wuhan.’

Covid-19 was first detected a few miles from the Wuhan Institute, where work on genetic changes to bat coronaviruses and how their mutations could transfer into humans was being conducted by scientists including Dr Daszak – who has no charges against him at present.

A US Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland press release states Morens and other conspirators were working to ‘counter the narrative that Covid-19 leaked from a lab’.

Dr Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance at the time, arrives for a House Select Subcommittee hearing on the Coronavirus Pandemic in Washington in May 2024

Evidence considered included a June 2020 email in which Morens spoke of writing a ‘scientific commentary’ about Dr Daszak’s work that would appear independent.

He wrote: ‘Let’s win this anti-science battle, get you re-funded… then settle some scores and kick some ass.’

A fortnight later, Dr Daszak is said to have sent two bottles of wine to Morens and described it as starting ‘a continued series of expressions of gratitude for your advice, support and behind-the-scenes shenanigans in my battle against your bosses’ boss, his boss and the ultimate boss on the hill (ie Donald Trump).’

Morens then published an article, The Origins of Covid-19 and Why It Matters, which argued the virus was ‘natural’ and had come from animals, as well as calling for funding for work like Dr Daszak’s to help prevent another pandemic.

Dr Daszak would go on in 2021 to visit the Wuhan Institute as part of a World Health Organisation team investigating the source of the pandemic.

The subsequent report – dismissed as a ‘whitewash’ – concluded a lab leak was an unlikely cause.

In 2024, emails released by the US House oversight committee suggested Dr Daszak and Morens had discussed concealing their shared correspondence.

One, in June 2020 from Morens, bemoaned ‘paranoia-inducing’ freedom of information requests but spoke of deleting evidence, adding: ‘We are all smart enough to know to never have smoking guns.’

David Morens leaves the US District Court following his arraignment on felony charges in May alleging he concealed communications related to virus research

Aerial view of the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which opened in 2018

US court documents state the conspirators ‘concealed their communications’ in order to publish articles that didn’t directly mention Dr Daszak ‘to generate the appearance of disinterested scientific consensus’.

Viscount Ridley, co-author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19, claimed it was ‘time [Dr Daszak] was held to account’.

He said: ‘The record shows that Peter Daszak boasted about channelling huge sums of money to dangerous gain-of-function experiments on Sars-like viruses in Wuhan…

‘And then, when the pandemic broke out in Wuhan… did his utmost to kill any investigation into the possibility that a laboratory accident killed millions of people.’

Morens’ plea deal with the US District Court in Maryland means he could still face a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced in November.

Dr Fauci recently exercised his right to avoid implicating himself by invoking the Fifth Amendment at a Senate hearing where he was questioned about his relationship with Morens.

Dr Daszak was approached for a comment.

He has previously vehemently denied that Covid leaked from a lab, while an EcoHealth spokesman said there is no way the experiments conducted by themselves and the Wuhan Institute could have started the pandemic.

In 2023, Dr Daszak retweeted a post by fellow virologist Dr Angela Rasmussen which said: 'By demonizing and alienating colleagues in China instead of building collaborative trust, this is what the relentlessly toxic lab leak conspiracy machine has yielded: The complete and total disintegration of any meaningful further investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2.'

The following year, Dr Daszak said: 'In South and South East Asia there is a very dynamic interface, with as many as 60,000-plus people a year being infected by bat coronaviruses, so that’s a high risk for future pandemic emergence.'