As increasing evidence suggests the COVID-19 virus likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) is introducing a bill that would ban taxpayer dollars from funding so-called gain-of-function research — or at least pause funding.
Gallagher joined U.S. Representatives Henry Cuellar (D-TX- 28) and Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-GA-01) this week introduced the Pausing Enhanced Pandemic Pathogen Research Act, which would stall taxpayer-funded gain-of-function research for five years, providing time to evaluate the risks and for proper safety standards and protocols to be implemented, the lawmakers say.
The aim of the controversial research is to examine new ways to combat infectious diseases, but critics have warned that the risks are greater than the rewards. Exhibit A just might be the novel coronavirus that became known worldwide as COVID-19 and a pandemic that has claimed more than 1.1 million lives in the United States, nearly 6.9 million worldwide.
“For those unfamiliar with gain-of-function research, it essentially means juicing up naturally occurring animal viruses in a lab to make them more infectious among humans,” said Senator Rand Paul (R-KY).
As Paul notes, the practice is nothing new. U.S. scientists have long known how to mutate animal viruses to infect humans. The benign idea is to find defenses against deadly viruses. But the viruses can be weaponized, too. Experts warn these practices could lead to wide-spread community infections and death.
And, well, accidents do happen.
Gallagher said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institutes of Health, ignored the moratorium on gain-of-function research and sent taxpayer dollars to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to fund “dangerous practices.”
“While we don’t yet know whether this helped cause the pandemic, we do know that this never should have happened in the first place,” Gallagher said. “This bipartisan bill takes long overdue action to formally freeze any federal funding for gain-of-function research until we can understand the risks it entails and the role it played in the pandemic.”
The NIH funded the EcoHealth Alliance, which then sent money to the Wuhan laboratories for research on emerging viruses. But the institutes missed warning signs, allowing U.S. money to flow to the Wuhan Institute of Virology without adequate oversight of what the Chinese scientists were doing, The Washington Times wrote in reporting on the review from the inspector general of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department.
“Despite identifying potential risks associated with research being performed under the EcoHealth awards, NIH did not effectively monitor or take timely action to address EcoHealth’s compliance with some research requirements,” the inspector general concluded.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy concluded that a lab leak in China was the likely cause of the COVID-19 outbreak. The FBI has come to the same conclusion, as have other top scientists.
Former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Direct Robert Redfield earlier this month testified that mounting evidence indicates COVID-19 was likely the result of an accidental leak in Wuhan. He said his conclusion is based on the biology of the virus itself, as well as unusual action in and around Wuhan in 2019, including gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Redfield testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, saying that he believed very early on the virus appeared to be engineered.
He said he had several calls with Fauci, World Health Organization chief scientist Jeremy Farrar, and WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“I expressed as a clinical virologist that I felt it was not scientifically plausible that this virus went from a bat to humans and became one of the most infectious viruses that we have in humans,” Redfield said.
Carter said the more we learn about the origins of COVID-19, the more it becomes clear gain-of-function research is an “existential threat.”
“The National Institutes of Health and Dr. Fauci knew the risks but continued to fund this research with taxpayer dollars in America and overseas, including at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” the congressman said. “We must double down on our efforts to prevent irresponsible research and protect our communities from future pandemics.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Mike Gallagher” by Congressman Mike Gallagher. Background Photo “Wuhan Institute of Virology” by Ureem2805. CC BY-SA 4.0.
