The National Institutes of Health (NIH) plans to continue creating novel pandemic viruses in apparent defiance of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump calling for a crackdown on the research, according to three government sources involved with the process, who were granted anonymity to avoid government reprisals.
Biosafety hawks have been duking it out with officials at the NIH, the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security as an interagency group finalizes Trump’s policy on dangerous gain-of-function (GOF) research — which makes viruses more deadly in the lab. Per the executive order, the policy on federal GOF research is due Sept. 2. Three intelligence agencies have concluded that a lab accident sparked COVID-19.
Former White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy Director Gerry Parker — a biodefense expert who has long been critical of the NIH gain-of-function policies that preceded COVID-19 — led the process of drafting the policy. But Parker resigned this July from the White House after a six-month stint, STAT News first reported. Parker confirmed his departure to the Daily Caller News Foundation and said it was due to a personal rather than professional issue.
In the void, inertia has set in. At NIH — where the policy shop has remained unchanged since the Biden administration — a consultant hired by NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya was marginalized as an extremist for pushing for a stricter policy, according to a government source. Ed Hammond, who tracked Fauci’s biodefense buildup for years, was fired from NIH on Aug. 21, he said on X. Hammond declined to comment beyond his tweet.
Bhattacharya identified the “crisis of gain of function research” as one of his top five priorities at a March confirmation hearing, yet has not been deeply involved with GOF policy.
A spokesperson for Bhattacharya’s top deputy, NIH Principal Deputy Director Matthew Memoli, declined an interview request.
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Author: Marty Kaufmann
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