By Guy Page

The former treasurer of the Board of Directors of EcoHealth Alliance, the now defunct research group associated with coronavirus research in Wuhan, China, is a Vermont veterinarian. 

EcoHealth Alliance re-emerged into the Covid-19 media coverage this weekend after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released documents that revealed U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief Anthony Fauci’s knowledge of the organization’s role in the ‘gain of function’ research in Wuhan, China. That research is now widely regarded as the source of the Covid-19 virus.

Most of the documents released by Gabbard are merely clippings of news media reports. However, several of the documents were written by government officials. Taken together, they portray Fauci’s under-the-radar support for the ‘natural origin’ Covid origin theory put forth the EcoHealth Alliance, his communications with EcoHealth Alliance leaders, and Fauci’s NIH funding of the organization’s Wuhan research.

Dr. Frederick Baum, former EcoHealth Alliance board member and treasurer throughout the Covid-19 epidemic and two years previous, and owner and founder of The Arlington Animal Hospital in Arlington in Bennington County, was busy when VDC contacted the veterinarian’s office Monday and has not returned the call. He has not made any known, public statements about the Covid-19 epidemic.

EcoHealth Alliance was shut down by founder Peter Daszak in April 2025. He then started Nature.Health.Global.org, another research organization. There is no record of Baum’s involvement in Daszak’s new venture. The animal hospital website still lists Baum’s involvement in EcoHealthAlliance.

In his announcement, Daszak stood by his natural origin of Covid-19 story, and blamed the ‘anti-science’ atmosphere for EcoHealth Alliance’s downfall:

“This is a sad indictment of our politics here in the USA and globally and it reflects a growing anti-science movement that was amplified and weaponized during the COVID-19 pandemic. The closure of EcoHealth Alliance follows 5 years of harassment that began early in the pandemic and involved an unprecedented series of efforts to politically target and ultimately defund a leading research organization. To some of us, the closure of EcoHealth Alliance represents the ultimate irony of the pandemic: An organization whose President predicted a coronavirus pandemic on CBS’s 60 Minutes in 2004, and whose staff warned repeatedly of the risk of bat origin zoonotic coronaviruses, was driven to close its doors because these predictions were uncomfortably accurate.”

Frederick “Rick” Baum joined the board of directors in 2018, according to an EcoHealth alliance statement. As of 2022 he was listed as the organization’s treasurer on its website, which is now inactive.

The organization billed itself as “a nonprofit organization working at the intersection of animal, environmental, and human health on a global scale” that is “dedicated to a ‘One Health’ approach to protecting the health of people, animals and the environment from emerging infectious diseases.” One Health science studies zoonotic diseases, “which are diseases that can spread between animals and people,” the CDC website says. 

The EcoHealth Alliance website commented on coronavirus research conducted in Wuhan in 2019. In January 28, 2020, it released information about a “coronavirus genome from a case of a respiratory disease from the Wuhan outbreak.” That’s the last posting about the Wuhan flu that later became known as Covid-19.

EcoHealth Alliance played a key role in the alleged ‘gain of function’ research leading to the emergence of Covid-19 in Wuhan, China, critics say. 

Among them, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) said August 3 that Anthony Fauci “offshored the paused research to China. In 2012, Fauci gave a new grant to Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance for influenza research in China. In 2014, Fauci gave another new grant to Daszak for SARS research in China. Daszak partnered with who? The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).”

“Dr. Baum is the owner and director of Arlington Animal Hospital in Arlington, Vermont. He also works as an emergency veterinarian and has previously practiced in Maine and New York City. Dr. Baum holds a DVM from Cornell University, as well as an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,” his EcoHealth Alliance website bio read.

“He is also active with the Veterinary Information Network Foundation which provides support for veterinarians all over the world. The dramatic changes in our wildlife, public health, and environment require active participation on a broad scale. ‘I joined the Board to become part of an energetic and dynamic team committed to scientific discovery, clearer identification of environmental and health related issues, and the development of inclusive solutions on both a local and international level,’ remarked Dr. Baum.”