In a massive effort to protect Americans, President Donald Trump is taking decisive action against the dangers of risky gain-of-function virus research.
This type of research became infamous as many experts believe it unleashed COVID-19 on the world.
President Trump signed an executive order halting all federal funding for gain-of-function experiments in China and Iran.
The order specifically targets research that enhances pathogens to make them more transmissible or dangerous.
This type of controversial experimentation involves manipulating viruses to study how they might evolve.
Many scientists believe this research led to the COVID-19 pandemic through a lab leak at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“It can leak out innocently, stupidly and incompetently, and half destroy the world,” President Trump stated during the signing ceremony.
He emphasized the catastrophic consequences of laboratory accidents with enhanced pathogens.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a longtime critic of risky virus research. He strongly backed the president’s action.
“There’s no laboratory that’s immune from leaks—and this is going to prevent those kind of inadvertent leaks from happening in the future and endangering humanity,” Kennedy said.
The executive order empowers U.S. research agencies to immediately terminate funding for biological research that poses threats to public health or national security.
It specifically targets countries with inadequate oversight mechanisms, with China and Iran being primary concerns.
“Any nation that engages in this research endangers their own population, as well as the world, as we saw during the COVID pandemic,” said National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya.
This decisive move comes as the U.S. intelligence community remains divided over COVID-19’s origins.
Several agencies, including the FBI and CIA, have concluded the virus likely escaped from the Wuhan lab, while others maintain it emerged naturally.
The government website about COVID now prominently features evidence supporting the lab leak theory.
China has rejected responsibility. Foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning claimed it is “extremely unlikely” the pandemic originated from a lab leak.
She demanded the U.S. “stop politicizing and weaponizing origins-tracing at once, and stop scapegoating others.”
Some scientists oppose the funding restrictions, claiming such research is necessary for pandemic prevention.
However, Rutgers University microbiologist Richard Ebright supports the measure.
He warned: “If one of these pathogens is released accidentally or if they are released deliberately, they can cause pandemics.”
The NIH previously funded bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute through EcoHealth Alliance, a grant canceled under President Trump’s first administration but partially restored under Joe Biden.
Former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci has repeatedly denied that the research met the technical definition of gain-of-function, a claim now under renewed scrutiny.
President Trump has prioritized American safety and global health security by taking this bold step to halt dangerous pathogen research funding in countries with lax safety protocols.
