Who could imagine why?
The National Institutes of Health quietly changed the definition of “gain-of-function” amid fallout from revelations concerning Dr. Anthony Fauci’s funding of dangerous coronavirus experiments at a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) quietly changed the definition of “gain-of-function” research on their official website. This comes amid fallout from Dr. Fauci’s Wuhan Lab scandal, in which it was discovered that he funded novel coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China prior to the outbreak of coronavirus, a move that many experts – including Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) have said could make him “culpable for the entire pandemic.”
The new definition downplays the risks associated with “gain-of-function” experiments and largely focuses on other research.
As recently as Oct. 19, the NIH defined “gain-of-function” experiments as “a type of research that modifies a biological agent so that it confers new or enhanced activity to that agent.” The NIH noted that “This research poses biosafety and biosecurity risks,” and warned that “these risks must be carefully managed. ”
“When supported with NIH funds,” the old definition explained, “this subset of GOF research may only be conducted in laboratories with stringent oversight and appropriate biosafety and biosecurity controls to help protect researchers from infection and prevent the release of microorganisms into the environment.”
The new definition downplays the concept of gain-of-function and largely focuses on “enhanced potential pandemic pathogen” (ePPP) research.
“While ePPP research is a type of so-called ‘gain-of-function’ (GOF) research,” the revised definition explains, “the vast majority of GOF research does not involve ePPP and falls outside the scope of oversight required for research involving ePPPs.”
Federal health agencies appear to have a habit of changing the definitions of words associated with widely discussed, hot-button issues related to COVID-19.
In early September, National File reported that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) had quietly changed the definition of “vaccine” as more and more individuals continued to get infected with coronavirus despite being vaccinated.
On August 26, 2021, the definition of “vaccine” on the CDC website was “a product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease.” The definition of “vaccination” at that time was “the act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce immunity to a specific disease.”
As of yesterday, the new definition of “vaccine” on the CDC website is “a preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases.” The definition of “vaccination” describes “the act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce protection from a specific disease.”
