The Trump administration issued an order to end gain-of-function (GOF) research on Monday. Which is great except when you consider that the Obama administration also tried to end gain-of-function research in 2014 and Mad Scientists ignored that order and did it anyway.
Obama’s pause on GOF was lifted by the National Institutes of Health in December of 2017, during President Trump’s first term because then-director Francis S. Collins said “GOF research is important in helping us identify, understand, and develop strategies and effective countermeasures against rapidly evolving pathogens that pose a threat to public health.”
So…naturally we should have questions before we celebrate this. How do we know that this order will actually end GOF research? And since the order only applies to federally funded research, couldn’t the private sector still conduct GOF? And if they do, won’t they do so with less oversight?
There is also the concern of U.S. funding of foreign labs that may not be forthcoming with the public about their projects.
The executive order does not address these questions. It only requires the agencies to present a plan within 120 days.
