Trump halts U.S. funding for dangerous gain-of-function research in China tied to COVID origins
By isabelle // 2025-05-07
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  • President Trump signed an executive order banning federal funding for gain-of-function research in poorly regulated countries like China, citing risks to public health and national security.
  • The order follows evidence linking U.S.-backed research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused global devastation.
  • Internal records show NIH and USAID funded risky bat coronavirus research in Wuhan despite a 2014 moratorium, with experts calling it a potential "smoking gun" for the pandemic’s origin.
  • Decades of ignored warnings, including past lab accidents and outbreaks, highlight the dangers of unregulated virus manipulation.
  • The ban aims to prevent future man-made pandemics by cutting funding for high-risk experiments abroad, earning bipartisan praise as a win for public safety.
President Donald Trump took decisive action Monday to protect Americans from another pandemic by signing an executive order banning federal funding for gain-of-function research experiments that enhance viruses' lethality in China and other poorly regulated countries. The move comes after years of mounting evidence that U.S.-backed research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) may have sparked the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed millions of lives and devastated economies worldwide. “It’s a big deal. It could have been that we wouldn’t have had the problem we had, if we had this done,” Trump remarked in the Oval Office, holding up the signed order. The directive halts taxpayer dollars from flowing to high-risk virus manipulation abroad, where oversight is weak, and warns that unchecked gain-of-function experiments threaten public health, economic stability, and national security.

The Wuhan connection

Gain-of-function research, which modifies viruses to increase their transmissibility or deadliness, has long been controversial. Documents reveal that the U.S. government, under Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), funneled millions to the WIV through the EcoHealth Alliance despite a 2014 U.S. moratorium on such experiments. Emails show NIH officials repeatedly warned EcoHealth about violating the funding pause, yet the research continued. “This dangerous game of function research, which aims at taking pathogens and making them more virulent, more transmissible on humans, many scientists believe is responsible for the COVID pandemic,” said NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. FBI, CIA, and Energy Department assessments, along with former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, have all pointed to a lab leak as the most likely origin of COVID-19. Fauci, who once defended gain-of-function studies as “a risk worth taking” in 2011, has dismissed lab-leak theories as “conspiracy theories.” Yet internal records confirm NIAID and USAID directed over $1.4 million to EcoHealth for bat coronavirus research at WIV between 2014 and 2021. A rejected 2018 proposal, Project DEFUSE, sought to engineer high-risk coronaviruses—a plan some experts call a “smoking gun” for COVID’s lab origin. Peter Daszak, EcoHealth’s president, admitted under congressional questioning that China’s biosafety standards were lax compared to the U.S. and that unpublished virus data may still be hidden in Wuhan.

A history of warnings ignored

The executive order follows decades of ignored red flags. In 2004, Science reported lab accidents prompting calls for stricter containment protocols. The 1977 Russian flu, likely a lab escape, and the 2009 H1N1 vaccine-linked narcolepsy cases underscore the dangers of poorly regulated virology. Trump’s order stops gain-of-function funding until stricter oversight is implemented. “We can’t point to a single good thing that’s come from [gain-of-function research],” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., citing COVID’s catastrophic toll. “I commend President Trump for his courage and his vision in ending U.S. bioweapons research.” Trump’s order marks a critical step toward accountability. By cutting off funding for reckless experiments in adversarial nations, the U.S. can mitigate the risk of another man-made pandemic. As Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) declared, “This is a great win for the American people and common sense.” The world cannot afford another Wuhan, and this ban ensures U.S. dollars won’t fund the next global disaster. Sources for this article include: LifeSiteNews.com FoxNews.com NYPost.com
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