Trump has ‘long theorized’ COVID-19 originated from lab leak at Wuhan Institute of Virology
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday banning all federal funding for “dangerous” gain-of-function research in China, Iran and other countries and blocking all federal funding for foreign research that could cause another pandemic.
The president signed the order Monday afternoon to improve the safety and security of biological research in the U.S. and around the world.
The White House said the order “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.”
Gain-of-function research typically involves modifying a virus to make it more infectious among humans. Gain of function research took place at the Wuhan Lab before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The White House said the order will protect Americans from lab accidents and other biosecurity incidents, “such as those that likely caused COVID-19 and the 1977 Russian flu.”
The president’s order ends any present and all future federal funding of gain-of-function research in countries with insufficient oversight of research, and it empowers U.S. research agencies to identify and end federal funding of any other biological research that could pose a threat to American public health, public safety or national security.
“For decades, policies overseeing gain-of-function research on pathogens, toxins, and potential pathogens have lacked adequate enforcement, transparency, and top-down oversight,” the White House said in a fact sheet describing the order. “Researchers have not acknowledged the legitimate potential for societal harms that this kind of research poses.”
The order, according to the White House, “protects Americans from dangerous gain-of-function research that manipulates viruses and other biological agents and toxins, but it does not impede productive biological research that will ensure the United States maintains readiness against biological threats and continues to drive global leadership in biotechnology, biosecurity, and health research.”
“President Trump has long theorized that COVID-19 originated from a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and has consistently pushed for transparency in investigating its origins,” the White House said.