The Health and Human Services Department announced a new policy Tuesday banning federal funding for “dangerous” gain-of-function research — a kind of risky experiment that enhances viruses to try to predict how dangerous they might become.
Some analysts believe gain-of-function experiments in a Chinese virus lab are behind the coronavirus pandemic.
The new ban applies to research both inside and outside the U.S. that’s funded with taxpayers’ money. It also restricts broader experimentation in countries deemed not to have sufficient biosafety controls.
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the new approach — a risk-based model — still leaves room for research on vaccines and other medical tools.
“The federal government has a duty to protect the American people — not fund research that could put them at risk,” he said in a statement. “Today, we are ending federal support for dangerous gain-of-function research and replacing weak oversight with clear, enforceable safeguards.”
The policy follows an executive order issued by President Trump last year that limited federal support for dangerous gain-of-function research abroad.
Questions have abounded over whether U.S. assistance to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for research on bat coronaviruses included dangerous gain-of-function experiments.
Some experts say the experiments funded by taxpayers do count, though Dr. Anthony Fauci, who headed infectious disease research at the National Institutes of Health at the time, has repeatedly rejected that idea, saying the U.S.-funded experiments didn’t meet the definition.
Dr. Fauci is slated to testify Wednesday to a Senate committee about the virus.
In a journal kept by Dr. Fauci, which was released this weekend by Sen. Rand Paul, the infectious disease specialist said he was not a strong advocate for gain-of-function research, believing it should “only be done on the very special circumstances when the public health need requires it and that it needs to be done on the very restricted conditions.”
Some U.S. agencies, including the FBI, believe that SARS-CoV-2019 leaked from work at the Wuhan lab, and a congressional Republican report specifically blames gain of function work at the lab.
Dr. Fauci has said he believes a natural spillover from an animal host is the more likely explanation.
The new Trump policy defines dangerous gain of function work, or DGOF, as research that “enhances a property or properties of a biological agent in ways that make it more dangerous.”
Actual DGOF research is barred. Potential DGOF research — where a biological agent might be modified in worrying ways — is still allowed, but subject to a new third-party review process.
More broadly, all life sciences research conducted in a “country of concern” is forbidden with federal money.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
