The New York-based organization previously used US funds to research bat coronaviruses in conjunction with the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China.

A commission from the reputable medical journal Lancet has dismissed a group of scientists tasked with investigating the origins of the coronavirus. 

On Saturday, September 25, The Wall Street Journal reported.

It is reported that this decision was made due to a possible conflict of interest, since “the researchers could be associated with Chinese laboratories.”

In particular, Jeffrey Sachs, chairman of Covid-19 commission affiliated with the Lancet scientific journals and professor at Columbia University in the United States, was concerned about the links of scientists from the commission with the non-profit EcoHealth Alliance, which previously researched bat coronaviruses in cooperation with the Institute of Virology in the Chinese city of Wuhan. 

“I just didn’t want a working group that has such a clear relationship to one of the main points of this lineage study, which was the EcoHealth Alliance,” Sachs said.

EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Dassak is known to have chaired the working group. He is opposed to the version of the laboratory origin of the coronavirus.