Lab Control

No more risky research:

The gain-of-function funding ban targets countries of concern, such as Iran and China, that lack oversight standards to prevent the spread of more potent modified organisms, which could put American lives at risk. “Dangerous gain-of-function research on biological agents and pathogens has the potential to significantly endanger the lives of American citizens. If left unrestricted, its effects can include widespread mortality, an impaired public health system, disrupted American livelihoods, and diminished economic and national security.” The executive order establishes new enforcement tools for federal funding related to gain-of-function research abroad and implements oversight mechanisms to enhance the safety of biomedical research. The executive order criticized what it called Biden’s reckless approval of gain-of-function research in China, where the United States had limited oversight, via the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “The Biden Administration allowed dangerous gain-of-function research within the United States with insufficient levels of oversight,” it reads. “It also actively approved, through the National Institutes of Health, Federal life-science research funding in China and other countries where there is limited United States oversight or reasonable expectation of biosafety enforcement.” Subsequently, the order warned that such recklessness, if not addressed, could cause the proliferation of research pathogens and suggested that COVID-19 was a wake-up call for the federal government to act. “It can leak out, like from Wuhan … I said that right from day one.”

Bad science gets busted...