President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday barring all federal funding for “dangerous” gain-of-function research in nations such as China and Iran that lack proper safety procedures.
Gain-of-function research is aimed at altering microorganisms in a way to increase their transmissibility and virulence and other traits, according to News-Medical.
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.”
“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 added.
“This Order 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.”
Trump said while signing the order, “It’s a big deal. It could have been that we wouldn’t have had the problem [with COVID-19] had if we had this done.”
???? BREAKING: @POTUS just signed an executive order protecting Americans from dangerous gain-of-function research.
The 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… pic.twitter.com/4Cn7iQ4i3L
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 5, 2025
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, told reporters in the Oval Office, “The conduct of this research does not protect us against pandemics, as some people might say.”
“What it does is, there’s always a danger that in doing this research, it might leak out just by accident, even, and cause a pandemic.”
???? NEW: Jay Bhattacharya’s @DrJBhattacharya speech on the end of Federal funding for Gain of Function research pic.twitter.com/mpcPLnCRhe
— Autism Capital ???? (@AutismCapital) May 5, 2025
Trump noted, “So it can leak out innocently, stupidly, incompetently, but innocently, and half destroy the world, right?”
“That’s right, Mr. President,” Bhattacharya confirmed.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., commented on the executive order, saying, China, Russia, and Iran are “deeply engaged” in gain-of-function research for potential use in warfare.
Thank you @POTUS for signing this historic Executive Order today. There’s no laboratory that’s immune from leaks — and this is going to prevent inadvertent leaks from happening in the future and endangering humanity. https://t.co/yVzDFczIq9
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) May 5, 2025
He added, “In all the history of gain-of-function research, we can’t point to a single good thing that’s come from it.”
The New York Post reported, “The NIAID [National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases], then run by [Dr. Anthony] Fauci, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) funneled more than $1.4 million in grants and subawards through EcoHealth [Alliance] to the Chinese lab between 2014 and 2021 for a project titled ‘Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.’”
The Wuhan Lab conducted gain-of-function research before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in the region.
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