Overview

• President Donald Trump signed an executive order on May 6, 2025, suspending U.S. federal funding for gain-of-function research in certain countries and pausing domestic studies involving high-risk pathogens.
• The decision follows longstanding concerns about the safety of gain-of-function experiments, which intentionally enhance pathogens to study their potential evolution.
• Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. emphasized that no laboratory is immune to leaks and stated the order aims to prevent accidental releases that could threaten global health.
• NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya warned that nations conducting such research risk endangering their populations and the world, referencing lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The move comes amid ongoing debates about the origins of COVID-19, with a 2023 U.S. intelligence report suggesting the virus may have been genetically engineered and leaked from a Wuhan lab.