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Scottish Sun
06-05-2025
- Health
- Scottish Sun
Trump signs executive order BANNING Frankenstein-style virus research feared to spawned Covid pandemic in Wuhan lab leak
DONALD Trump has banned all US funding for risky virus research in China and beyond, five years after Covid-19 upended the planet. In a blistering executive order signed Monday, Trump outlawed federal support for gain-of-function experiments in countries like China and Iran — blaming the controversial research for unleashing the global health catastrophe. 7 US President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning risky virus research on Monday Credit: AFP 7 Security personnel keep watch outside Wuhan Institute of Virology in China Credit: Reuters 7 Shi Zhengli - dubbed 'Batwoman' for her work on bat coronaviruses - pictured at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) Credit: EPA 7 An aerial view shows the P4 laboratory at the WIV Credit: AFP The US President said in the Oval Office: 'I said that right from day one it leaked out — whether it was to the girlfriend or somebody else, [a] scientist walked outside to have lunch with the girlfriend or was together with a lot of people — but that's how it leaked out in my opinion. 'I've never changed that opinion, so it can leak out innocently, stupidly and incompetently, but innocently and half destroy the world.' The dramatic order pulls the plug on "any present and all future" funding for experiments that make viruses more infectious or deadly - a field many scientists call "dual-use" research due to its potential military and public health impacts. It will also appoint the National Institutes of Health and other agencies to sniff out and shut down bio-research posing a threat to public safety or national security. According to a White House fact sheet, the 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 move comes amid a renewed global spotlight on the origins of Covid-19. There has been a growing consensus among US intelligence agencies including the FBI, Department of Energy, and the CIA that a lab leak in Wuhan is the likeliest explanation. Trump's team tore into the Biden administration for failing to slam the brakes earlier on risky foreign experiments that 'half destroyed the world.' 'Many people believe that gain-of-function research was one of the key causes of the Covid pandemic that struck us in the last decade,' said White House secretary Will Scharf. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hailed it as 'a historic day' and 'the end of gain-of-function research funding by the federal government.' Trump will NOT run for third term after insisting he was 'not joking' What is gain-of-function research? GAIN-of-function (GoF) research involves altering an organism — typically a virus or bacterium — to give it new or enhanced abilities. When it comes to viruses, this often means making them: • More transmissible (spread more easily between people or animals) • More virulent (cause more severe illness) • Able to infect new species (including humans) The goal is usually to better understand how pathogens evolve or to develop vaccines and treatments. For example, scientists might tweak a flu virus to see how it could mutate to jump from birds to humans — giving researchers a head start on fighting future outbreaks. But GoF research is highly controversial because of the risk it could create a supervirus that escapes the lab — whether accidentally or deliberately — and triggers a pandemic, as many fear happened with Covid-19. '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,' added NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. 'This research does not protect us against pandemics, as some people might say. There's always a danger that in doing this research, it might leak out,' he said. 'The vast majority of science will go on under this as normal.' The Covid-19 pandemic, which killed more than seven million people worldwide and over one million Americans, has long been surrounded by suspicion over its origins. Though former NIH boss Dr. Francis Collins and ex-NIAID chief Dr. Anthony Fauci insist the virus likely jumped naturally from animals to humans, others — including former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield — have backed the lab leak theory. It comes after The Sun's explosive Covid lab leak documentary laid bare the mounting evidence and disturbing questions surrounding the virus's emergence in Wuhan — home to China's most secretive bio-research facility. The new crackdown also follows an explosive congressional report last December, which concluded Covid "most likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan" - implicating China, US officials, and scientific institutions in a cover-up. The report also revealed the DOJ had probed the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance - accused of funnelling US taxpayer cash to the Wuhan lab through projects like 'Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.' The program, funded by NIAID and USAID between 2014 and 2021, led to gain-of-function research, according to former The National Institutes of Health (NIH) deputy director Dr. Lawrence Tabak — though officials have denied any direct Covid link. Another proposal, Project DEFUSE, submitted by EcoHealth president Dr. Peter Daszak to DARPA, sought to create chimeric bat coronaviruses — and has since been labelled the 'smoking gun' by lab leak proponents. Though never funded, former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) chief Redfield has warned such projects may still have been tested under other grants. 7 Peter Daszak, a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus, arriving at the WIV in 2021 Credit: AFP 7 Dr. Shi Zhengli is seen touring her lab with Peter Daszak back in 2014 Credit: Social Media - Refer to Source 7 In the early days of the pandemic, Shi sequenced the virus and a critical role in the story of Covid Daszak, who testified before Congress last year, admitted China's biosafety rules were weaker than America's — and said he lacked access to key genomic data from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He has fiercely denied any link between EcoHealth and the outbreak, branding lab-leak theorists 'conspiracy theorists' — a stance echoed by Fauci. But the Department of Defense's own watchdog found the US has struggled to track how much gain-of-function research it's helped fund — citing 'significant limitations' and noting such work could qualify as 'offensive biological' research. An audit sparked by Sen. Joni Ernst found at least seven grants worth more than $15.5 million were channelled through subrecipients to Chinese or other foreign labs. The Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency handed over another $46.7 million to EcoHealth Alliance alone. 'I have been fighting for years to end the insane practice of sending tax dollars to China for sketchy pseudoscience,' said Ernst. 'Thankfully, President Trump is ending the batty experiments, like those conducted in Wuhan, that are dangerous and wasteful.' The executive order pauses all infectious pathogen and toxin research until a new enforcement policy is drawn up by Office of Science and Technology boss Michael Kratsios and acting National Security adviser Marco Rubio. It also comes just days after the US released a bombshell new website on Covid origins - pointing the finger squarely at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In a desperate propaganda push, China hit back last week with a bizarre White Paper claiming the virus may have started in the US — accusing America of 'spreading misinformation' and 'scapegoating' Beijing for its own failures. The document insists Covid 'might have emerged in the United States earlier than its officially-claimed timeline' and slams the US for 'indifference and delayed actions.' But the evidence — and global pressure — continues to mount. 'This is a great win for the American people and common sense,' said Ernst. 'I will continue working to expose and halt all taxpayer-funded risky research of pandemic potential in malign foreign countries!'
The Irish Sun
06-05-2025
- Health
- The Irish Sun
Trump signs executive order BANNING Frankenstein-style virus research feared to spawned Covid pandemic in Wuhan lab leak
DONALD Trump has banned all US funding for risky virus research in China and beyond, five years after Covid-19 upended the planet. In a blistering executive order signed Monday, Trump outlawed federal support for gain-of-function experiments in countries like China and Iran — blaming the controversial research for unleashing the global health catastrophe. 7 US President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning risky virus research on Monday Credit: AFP 7 Security personnel keep watch outside Wuhan Institute of Virology in China Credit: Reuters 7 Shi Zhengli - dubbed 'Batwoman' for her work on bat coronaviruses - pictured at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) Credit: EPA 7 An aerial view shows the P4 laboratory at the WIV Credit: AFP The US President said in the Oval Office: 'I said that right from day one it leaked out — whether it was to the girlfriend or somebody else, [a] scientist walked outside to have lunch with the girlfriend or was together with a lot of people — but that's how it leaked out in my opinion. 'I've never changed that opinion, so it can leak out innocently, stupidly and incompetently, but innocently and half destroy the world.' The dramatic order pulls the plug on "any present and all future" funding for experiments that make viruses more infectious or deadly - a field many scientists call "dual-use" research due to its potential military and public health impacts. It will also appoint the National Institutes of Health and other agencies to sniff out and shut down bio-research posing a threat to public safety or national security. According to a White House fact sheet, the 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 move comes amid a renewed global spotlight on the origins of Covid-19. There has been a Trump's team tore into the Biden administration for failing to slam the brakes earlier on risky foreign experiments that 'half destroyed the world.' Most read in The US Sun 'Many people believe that gain-of-function research was one of the key causes of the Covid pandemic that struck us in the last decade,' said White House secretary Will Scharf. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hailed it as 'a historic day' and 'the end of gain-of-function research funding by the federal government.' Trump will NOT run for third term after insisting he was 'not joking' What is gain-of-function research? GAIN-of-function (GoF) research involves altering an organism — typically a virus or bacterium — to give it new or enhanced abilities. When it comes to viruses, this often means making them: • More transmissible (spread more easily between people or animals) • More virulent (cause more severe illness) • Able to infect new species (including humans) The goal is usually to better understand how pathogens evolve or to develop vaccines and treatments. For example, scientists might tweak a flu virus to see how it could mutate to jump from birds to humans — giving researchers a head start on fighting future outbreaks. But GoF research is highly controversial because of the risk it could create a supervirus that escapes the lab — whether accidentally or deliberately — and triggers a pandemic, as many fear happened with Covid-19. '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,' added NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. 'This research does not protect us against pandemics, as some people might say. There's always a danger that in doing this research, it might leak out,' he said. 'The vast majority of science will go on under this as normal.' The Covid-19 pandemic, which killed more than seven million people worldwide and over one million Americans, has long been surrounded by suspicion over its origins. Though former NIH boss Dr. Francis Collins and ex-NIAID chief Dr. Anthony Fauci insist the virus likely jumped naturally from animals to humans, others — including former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield — have backed the lab leak theory. It comes after The new crackdown also follows an explosive congressional report last December, which concluded Covid "most likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan" - implicating China, US officials, and scientific institutions in a cover-up. The report also revealed the DOJ had probed the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance - accused of funnelling US taxpayer cash to the Wuhan lab through projects like 'Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.' The program, funded by NIAID and USAID between 2014 and 2021, led to gain-of-function research, according to former The National Institutes of Health (NIH) deputy director Dr. Lawrence Tabak — though officials have denied any direct Covid link. Another proposal, Project DEFUSE, submitted by EcoHealth president Dr. Peter Daszak to DARPA, sought to create chimeric bat coronaviruses — and has since been labelled the 'smoking gun' by lab leak proponents. Though never funded, former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) chief Redfield has warned such projects may still have been tested under other grants. 7 Peter Daszak, a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus, arriving at the WIV in 2021 Credit: AFP 7 Dr. Shi Zhengli is seen touring her lab with Peter Daszak back in 2014 Credit: Social Media - Refer to Source 7 In the early days of the pandemic, Shi sequenced the virus and a critical role in the story of Covid Daszak, who testified before Congress last year, admitted China's biosafety rules were weaker than America's — and said he lacked access to key genomic data from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He has fiercely denied any link between EcoHealth and the outbreak, branding lab-leak theorists 'conspiracy theorists' — a stance echoed by Fauci. But the Department of Defense's own watchdog found the US has struggled to track how much gain-of-function research it's helped fund — citing 'significant limitations' and noting such work could qualify as 'offensive biological' research. An audit sparked by Sen. Joni Ernst found at least seven grants worth more than $15.5 million were channelled through subrecipients to Chinese or other foreign labs. The Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency handed over another $46.7 million to EcoHealth Alliance alone. 'I have been fighting for years to end the insane practice of sending tax dollars to China for sketchy pseudoscience,' said Ernst. 'Thankfully, President Trump is ending the batty experiments, like those conducted in Wuhan, that are dangerous and wasteful.' The executive order pauses all infectious pathogen and toxin research until a new enforcement policy is drawn up by Office of Science and Technology boss Michael Kratsios and acting National Security adviser Marco Rubio. It also comes just days after the US released a bombshell new website on Covid origins - pointing the finger squarely at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In a desperate propaganda push, China hit back last week with a bizarre White Paper claiming the virus may have started in the US — accusing America of 'spreading misinformation' and 'scapegoating' Beijing for its own failures. The document insists Covid 'might have emerged in the United States earlier than its officially-claimed timeline' and slams the US for 'indifference and delayed actions.' But the evidence — and global pressure — continues to mount. Read more on the Irish Sun 'This is a great win for the American people and common sense,' said Ernst. 'I will continue working to expose and halt all taxpayer-funded risky research of pandemic potential in malign foreign countries!'
New York Post
05-05-2025
- Health
- New York Post
Trump to ban risky gain-of-function research in China, nations lacking proper oversight
WASHINGTON — President Trump will sign an executive order Monday to ban all risky gain-of-function research in China, Iran and other countries without proper oversight of the experiments — more than five years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that US intel agencies have since said most likely resulted from a lab accident. The order will yank funding from 'any present and all future' gain-of-function research as well as deputize the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other agencies to identify biological research harmful to public health or threatening to national security. '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,' according to a White House fact sheet reviewed by The Post. Advertisement White House officials also dinged the Biden administration for allowing the possibly global-pandemic producing experiments that enhance the infectiousness of viruses and bacteria. Additionally, all research with infectious pathogens and toxins will be paused until the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and national security adviser develop a new policy with enforcement and reporting requirements. Advertisement Since SARS-CoV-2 emerged and went on to kill more than 1 million Americans, federal officials, lawmakers and scientific experts have debated whether it was a result of US-funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The NIH's National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), then run by Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) funneled more than $1.4 million in grants and subawards through EcoHealth to the Chinese lab between 2014 and 2021 for a project titled 'Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.' That resulted in what ex-NIH principal deputy director Dr. Lawrence Tabak said were gain-of-function experiments at the WIV, though he and other officials have denied there's a direct link between the project and the COVID pandemic. The FBI, Energy Department and CIA — as well as former public health officials like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield — later pointed to a lab leak as the most likely explanation.
Epoch Times
04-05-2025
- Health
- Epoch Times
The Flawed Logic in China's Recent Statement Blaming the US for COVID Outbreak
Commentary On April 30, China issued As a virologist who has been closely following the development of COVID-19 and related research, I aim to provide a scientific and objective analysis of the issues raised in the statement. The recent statement from China's State Council could not deny the existence of laboratory safety breaches, incidents, or potential loopholes at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and/or other related institutes. Instead, it chose to overlook these issues and did not address them at all in the statement. It also failed to respond to the key evidence presented by the White House regarding the lab leak theory from WIV, including: 1) the unusual biological characteristics of the viral sequence; 2) a single introduction to humans; 3) WIV's inadequate biosafety measures; and 4) reports of WIV researchers exhibiting COVID-like symptoms in the fall of 2019. Another key point in the White House statement regarding the lab leak theory is: 'By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin, it would have already surfaced. But it hasn't.' Over the past five years, the CCP has consistently denied the possibility of a lab leak, instead pointing to various animals, such as pangolins, as potential intermediate hosts. This new official statement from the CCP State Council clearly signals a shift, with the denial of the lab leak theory now giving way to a political move, as they attempt to blame the United States for the origin of the outbreak. China's recent statement also failed to address its cover-up of the outbreak in late 2019 and January 2020, as well as the censorship and punishment of Chinese doctors who exposed the situation. It did not explain why, despite Wuhan clearly suffering from the outbreak, the CCP allowed residents to travel abroad while restricting domestic travel within China. This new statement clearly indicates that the CCP can no longer deny its role in facilitating the global spread of the COVID virus. Regarding the virus leak incidents in the United States mentioned in the CCP's statement, it's important to recognize that research projects involving select agents and toxins inherently carry significant risks. The U.S. CDC and military medical research institutes have never claimed that their safety protocols are flawless. Even with routine inspections, there have been instances of protocol breaches and safety issues. These incidents have been reported by U.S. media, and the public is aware of them. For example, the 2019 closure of the Fort Detrick lab, which was highlighted in the CCP's statement, received extensive coverage in U.S. media. One local ABC station provided detailed reports on safety breaches observed at the facility: (a) The CDC Therefore, it is clear that the U.S. public was not entirely unaware of the incidents, although some details were withheld due to national security concerns. In contrast, the CCP has engaged in complete denial, cover-ups, media and social media censorship, and a staged investigation for the World Health Organization (WHO). Furthermore, no independent entities have had access to the key raw data and original samples collected in Wuhan. The CCP is aggressively pushing the narrative that COVID originated in the United States. This is not new, as it has been repeating the same accusation through official outlets like Global Times since the outbreak began. However, this accusation lacks scientific evidence. For example, the CCP cited a CDC report that identified SARS-CoV-2-reactive antibodies in blood samples collected from December 2019 to January 2020, where 7,389 blood samples were collected from routine blood donations by the American Red Cross. However, these samples were not from patients with respiratory symptoms. Although the study identified 106 samples showing reactivity in pan-Ig testing, there was no solid evidence indicating the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in these samples, as some antibodies against common coronaviruses could cross-react with SARS-CoV-2 antigens. The authors of the report also noted that these samples were not 'true positive' samples, as no SARS-CoV-2 antigen molecular test data were associated with them. Other countries, like Italy, also have similar reports suggesting the potential early entry of COVID through serological testing of blood samples collected in 2019. However, there were no small COVID outbreaks or cluster cases in the United States or other countries in 2019. As a result, the global consensus is that the true COVID outbreak began in China, specifically in Wuhan, in 2019. The ultimate goal of the CCP's recent statement is to avoid accountability for spreading COVID worldwide and turning it into a global pandemic that has claimed millions of lives. The recent White House statement on the true origin of COVID-19 marks a turning point, signaling that the United States is taking the issue seriously and is committed to holding the CCP accountable, rather than getting caught up in debates about its origin. The CCP, deeply fearful of this approach, is desperately trying to distract the global community by focusing on the virus's origin and calling for a new phase of investigation centered on the United States. This is yet another tactic of cognitive warfare that the CCP uses when facing global isolation and pressure, especially during the trade war. Known as 'Jiao Hun Shui' (攪渾水) in Chinese, or 'stirring up the muddy water,' it is designed to create confusion. The United States and the global community should disregard the CCP's arguments and remain steadfast in holding the CCP accountable.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump's Budget Calls for $17 Billion Cut to NIH, Citing Lax Oversight of Gain-of-Function Research in Wuhan
The White House budget calls for slashing $17 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), citing the agency's failure to properly monitor risky gain-of-function research it funded at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)—where the COVID-19 pandemic plausibly originated. "While evidence of the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic leaking from a laboratory is now confirmed by several intelligence agencies, the NIH's inability to prove that its grants to the Wuhan Institute of Virology were not complicit in such a possible leak, or get data and hold recipients of Federal funding accountable is evidence that NIH has grown too big and unfocused," reads the budget summary released on Friday. Shortly after President Donald Trump's inauguration, the CIA produced a new assessment saying that the agency now favors a lab leak explanation of the pandemic's origins. The FBI and the Energy Department have also said they favor the lab leak theory, as does Germany's intelligence agency. NIH has come under intense scrutiny for lax oversight of gain-of-function research it funded at the WIV via its grantee, the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance. In the years preceding the pandemic, NIH continued funding EcoHealth's gain-of-function research on coronaviruses, despite White House policies either freezing funding for that type of work or requiring it to undergo more serious scrutiny. It also failed to follow up with EcoHealth when it missed a deadline to submit progress reports on its work at WIV on the eve of the pandemic. Lab leak proponents point to this work, which involved creating viruses with enhanced potential to infect human cells, as likely seeding the creation of the pandemic at the WIV. The Biden administration suspended EcoHealth Alliance, and its now-former president Peter Daszak from receiving federal funding in 2024, citing its lax oversight of its subgrantees in Wuhan. In its last days in office, the Biden administration formally debarred EcoHealth and Daszak from receiving federal funds for the next five years. Gain-of-function research on pandemic pathogens is a tiny portion of NIH's budget. EcoHealth's grant was just $3 million, and only a portion of that was spent on its controversial work at WIV. Trump's proposed cuts to NIH are clearly part of a larger agenda to whittle the agency down in size. The budget document also criticizes NIH for funding "radical gender ideology." White House budget documents are ultimately a political statement, and it's typical that few of the proposed cuts they include are passed by Congress. It would be notable if Congress declined to take up Trump on his proposed NIH cuts, given the administration's lab leak justification for the cuts. The final report from the Republican majority on the House subcommittee tasked with investigating the origins of COVID-19 concluded that the pandemic likely resulted from a lab incident. It would be remarkable if, after coming to that conclusion, House Republicans continued to fund NIH at existing levels without additional oversight of gain-of-function research on pandemic pathogens. The Trump administration is reportedly going to be issuing a freeze on federal gain-of-function research funding imminently. Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) also has reintroduced a bill to more tightly regulate funding of such research. Paul's bill passed out of the Senate's Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in the last Congress. The post Trump's Budget Calls for $17 Billion Cut to NIH, Citing Lax Oversight of Gain-of-Function Research in Wuhan appeared first on
