The White Coat Waste Project uncovered 10 existing USDA contracts to work on mRNA vaccines, including one that is studying Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), a highly pathogenic tick-borne disease with a 10-40% case fatality rate. The research grant is given to the Agricultural Research Service in Manhattan, Kansas, in combination with researchers at the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), which was formerly on Plum Island, where researchers were studying Lyme disease near Lyme, Connecticut, where the first outbreak occurred.
The research involves multiple partner facilities, including UC Davis and Texas Tech, where tick colonies have been established after they have procured the ticks from African countries where the disease is endemic. CCHF has never been found in the United States – it is endemic to Africa, Asia, and some European countries, including southern Russia.
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EcoHealth Alliance, the research organization headed by now debarred Peter Daszak, also received funding from the Department of Defense to research CCHF to “combat weapons of mass destruction.” That grant was $3.7 million and ran from 2020 to 2024. The recently uncovered contract started in 2021 and ends in March of 2026 with an unknown contract amount.
While the EcoHealth Alliance grant to study CCHF mentions the purpose of combating weapons of mass destruction, this ongoing USDA research is said to be conducted for biodefense purposes. Specifically, the goal is to determine the “risk for the establishment of tick host vectors in the United States considering climatic and ecological conditions.” The tick species and the disease are only endemic in the eastern hemisphere.