President Donald Trump signed an executive order prohibiting federal funds from going to gain-of-function research in China, Iran, and other countries.
The order states that “[d]angerous gain-of-function research on biological agents and pathogens has the potential to significantly endanger the lives of American citizens.” It notes that if the research is left “unrestricted, its effects can include widespread mortality, an impaired public health system, disrupted American livelihoods, and diminished economic and national security.”
According to a White House fact sheet on the order, foreign research “likely to cause another pandemic” is barred from receiving federal funding. “These measures will drastically reduce the potential for lab-related incidents involving gain-of-function research, like that conducted on bat coronaviruses in China by the EcoHealth Alliance and Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
The order further protects Americans from “lab accidents and other biosecurity incidents, such as those that likely caused COVID-19 and the 1977 Russian flu.”
“Unlike previous policies, this Order contains enforcement and reporting mechanisms that will strengthen oversight and discourage subjective interpretation of policies that researchers have used in the past to evade biosafety and biosecurity oversight,” the fact sheet adds.
Upon signing the order, President Trump said, “It’s a big deal. It could have been that we wouldn’t have had the problem we had.”
The Trump administration recently changed a Biden-era website to discuss the “true origins” of the COVID-19 virus and draws attention to gain-of-function research. The website previously included information on how to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
The website lists five key details pointing to a lab leak as the virus’ origin, including that the virus “possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature.”
“Data shows that all COVID-19 cases stem from a single introduction into humans. This runs contrary to previous pandemics where there were multiple spillover events,” the website continues, going on to note that Wuhan is “home to China’s foremost SARS research lab, which has a history of conducting gain-of-function research (gene altering and organism supercharging) at inadequate biosafety levels.”
