The Donald Trump administration's executive order to freeze federal funding for "dangerous gain-of-funding" research on biological agents is dividing scientists, with critics fearing it will inhibit their ability to develop vaccines and drugs for when they are needed.
What's happening?
On May 5, the Trump administration announced it was suspending funding for dangerous gain-of-function research, including studies that could make a pathogen or toxin more deadly or transmissible or impact the effectiveness of vaccination against the agent in question.
The latest funding freeze will stretch for at least four months, during which time agency heads will review a policy set to expand oversight on research involving pathogens that could cause a pandemic.
According to Nature, the policy was set to come into effect during the first week of May. Officials released the new framework a year prior after criticism that previous regulations surrounding high-risk biological research were too vague.
Why is this important?
Modifying pathogens is one way researchers gain insight into potential threats to public health — and leverage that understanding to develop life-saving drugs and vaccines. This process may involve making pathogens more dangerous or transmissible in people, as Nature noted.
Even though research takes place in secure labs, scientists still have to take precautions to prevent the accidental escape of pathogens. Others worry pathogens could be weaponized.
Because of that risk, some scientists lauded Trump's executive order, which says its goal is to prevent "widespread mortality, an impaired public health system, disrupted American livelihoods, and diminished economic and national security." The order also halted dangerous gain-of-function research in "countries of concern."
"This executive order is a welcome new direction in mitigating that risk," said Raina MacIntyre, an infectious-diseases epidemiologist at Australia's University of New South Wales, per Nature.
However, critics of the executive order fear its implementation will hinder infectious-disease research altogether, potentially leaving the country less prepared to deal with deadly pathogens — which is concerning at a time when a warming climate is contributing to the spread of certain diseases, like zoonotic diseases.
"This is what I was expecting — an executive order banning gain-of-function research but defined in such a way that it bans all virology research," said Gigi Gronvall, a biosecurity specialist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, per Nature.
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Definitely 👍 How else will the funding pause impact researchers?
The Trump administration cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a key factor in its funding pause. In a White House fact sheet, it indicated that it believes COVID-19 originated from a lab leak by the EcoHealth Alliance and Wuhan Institute of Virology.
EcoHealth Alliance disputed allegations that it was involved in a lab leak before Trump was elected for his second term as president, after the U.S. Committee on Oversight and Government Reform concluded in 2024 that classified Department of State documents "credibly suggest COVID-19 originated from a lab-related accident in Wuhan, China."
"The fact is that most of the scientific community does not support the lab leak theory. Species to species transmission, i.e., zoonotic disease spillover, remains by far the most likely genesis, as supported by a growing body of scientific evidence," EcoHealth Alliance wrote, adding that the term "gain of function" was misapplied to its research.
While it remains to be seen how far-reaching any changes to the policy under review will be, the May 5 executive order signals an intent to create a publicly available database to track funding.
Nature reported that the move was welcomed by researchers, even if they remain skeptical of whether the system will have the infrastructure to succeed with the U.S. pulling out of the World Health Organization.
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