OAN Staff Blake Wolf
4:06 PM – Monday, May 5, 2025
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday that effectively bans federal funding for gain-of-function research, which is now believed to be the catalyst of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the White House.
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In relation to biosecurity threats, if a modified virus escapes a lab, such as what occurred prior to the COVID-19 virus spreading globally, it could cause yet another global pandemic. In addition to COVID-19, The H5N1 avian flu experiments in the early 2010s also alarmed many due to the creation of highly transmissible strains.
Gain of function research deals with genetically altering organisms to enhance the biological functions of gene products. The research is intended to better predict emerging infectious diseases in order to develop vaccines.
The White House recently unveiled a brand new COVID-19 webpage, explaining that the origin of COVID-19 likely came from the gain-of-function research lab in Wuhan, China — where they study coronaviruses.
“A lab-related incident involving gain-of-function research is the most likely the origin of COVID-19. Current government mechanisms for overseeing this dangerous gain-of-function research are incomplete, severely convoluted, and lack global applicability,” the White House wrote.
The executive 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 nations deemed to have insufficient research oversight.”
“For decades, policies overseeing gain-of-function research on pathogens, toxins, and potential pathogens have lacked adequate enforcement, transparency, and top-down oversight,” the White House wrote. “Researchers have not acknowledged the legitimate potential for societal harms that this kind of research poses.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci previously funneled over $1.4 million into the Wuhan Institute of Virology between 2014 and 2021 through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which was recently shut down. Although there has been some ongoing court challenges, the Trump administration has taken significant steps to dismantle the agency, leading to a significant reduction in foreign aid programs and the termination of many USAID contracts.
In addition, the EO “Prohibits Federal funding from contributing to foreign research likely to cause another pandemic. These measures 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,” the announcement continued, noting that it “protects Americans from lab accidents and other biosecurity incidents, such as those that likely caused COVID-19 and the 1977 Russian flu.”
The White House continued, reiterating that this order is meant to “protect 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.”
The U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy, along with the U.S. national security advisor, will be developing new safety standards in order to safely conduct the research.
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