Trump Bans Federal Funding for Gain-of-Function Research Amid Bioweapon Concerns

Historical Context of Gain-of-Function Research

• 🇺🇸 The US military and intelligence agencies engaged in gain-of-function research starting in 1947, with the CIA reporting nuclear equivalency by 1969.
• 🕊️ President Nixon declared a unilateral end to this dual-use research in 1969 and led efforts to establish the bioweapons charter in 1973, which largely halted such research globally.

Relaunch and Offshore Movement of Research

• 📜 A little-known provision in the Patriot Act allowed US federal officials violating the bioweapons charter to avoid prosecution, effectively relaunching a bioweapons arms race.
• 🦠 Three dangerous pathogens escaped from US labs in 2014, prompting President Obama to declare a moratorium, leading to much of this research moving offshore, notably to the Wuhan lab.
• 🌍 This shift fueled a global bioweapons arms race, with countries like China, Russia, and Iran developing devastating weapons using technologies like AI and CRISPR.

Justification and Lack of Benefits

• ⚠️ The primary justification for this research was to develop vaccines to counter future pandemics, but there is no historical evidence of any positive outcomes from gain-of-function research.
• 👏 President Trump is commended for his courage and vision in signing an executive order to ban federal funding for gain-of-function research, including controls on private corporations involved in such studies.