Flanked by Secretary of Health of Human Service Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., NIH Director Jay Battacharya, and FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order Monday ending federal funding of gain-of-function research “in countries of concern” while increasing safety and security “of U.S. biological research without hindering innovation.”
Secretary Kennedy commended President Trump for his “courage and his vision in ending US bioweapons research.” Kennedy added, “In all of the history of gain-of-function research, we can’t point to a single good thing that has come from it.”
We can point to one minor bad thing that has come of it: a global pandemic that killed millions of people, injured millions more, and drove billions of people to hysteria across the world.
Key features of the Executive Order:
- Ends any present and all future federal funding of dangerous gain-of-function research in countries of concern like China and Iran and in foreign nations deemed to have insufficient research oversight.
- Empowers American research agencies to identify and end [federal funding of other biological research that could pose a threat to American public health, public safety, or national security.
- Prohibits federal funding for foreign research likely to cause another pandemic.
- These measures will drastically reduce the potential for lab-related incidents involving gain-of-function research, like those conducted on bat coronaviruses in China by the EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
- Protects Americans from lab accidents and other biosecurity incidents, such as those that likely caused COVID-19 and the 1977 Russian flu.
