Trump bans federal funding of “dangerous” gain-of-function research

In a major policy shift, President Donald Trump has signed an executive order halting federal funding for “dangerous” gain-of-function (GoF) research.

The order defines such work as “scientific research on an infectious agent or toxin with the potential to cause disease by enhancing its pathogenicity or increasing its transmissibility.”

Sitting behind the Resolute desk, flanked by key health officials, Trump signed the order with his trademark black Sharpie.

“It’s a big deal,” he said in a subdued tone. “Could have been that we wouldn’t have had the problems we had… if we had this done earlier.”

The directive compels federal agencies to suspend funding for any project “reasonably determined to be dangerous.” It applies not only to domestic institutions, but also to research conducted in “countries of concern” such as China and Iran.

A reckoning led by dissenters

The announcement marked not only a change in policy, but a striking reversal in scientific leadership.

Standing beside Trump were three officials once ridiculed as outliers during the pandemic - Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary.

Now elevated to senior roles, each has been outspoken in challenging the dominant narrative around Covid-19, including the origins of the virus and the ethics of risky research.

“It’s unbelievable to think the entire nightmare of Covid was totally preventable,” said Makary, referring to the mounting evidence of a lab origin and the suppression of early warnings.

“It’s crazy to think this entire nightmare was probably the result of some scientists messing with mother nature—with technology exported from the United States—that is, inserting a furin cleavage site,” said Makary. “So I hope this does some good in the world.”

Kennedy, long critical of gain-of-function research, was more blunt. “In all of the history of gain-of-function research, we cannot point to a single good thing that has come of it,” he said.

Speaking to reporters, Kennedy added, “We can’t allow this reckless experimentation to continue, especially when it’s been linked to catastrophic outcomes with no discernible benefit.”

For Kennedy, the NIH’s support of EcoHealth Alliance’s work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology wasn’t an isolated failure—it reflected a broader pattern of merging national security interests with poorly regulated academic ambition, which he wrote about in his latest book, The Wuhan Cover-Up.

Bhattacharya called the order a long-overdue correction.

“This is a historic day,” he said. “The conduct of this research does not protect us against pandemics, as some people might say. It doesn’t protect us against other nations.”

Bhattacharya warned that even well-intentioned experiments carry immense risk.

“There’s always a danger that in doing this research, it might leak out, just by accident even, and cause a pandemic. Any nation that engages in this research endangers their own population, as well as the world,” he warned.

Bhattacharya emphasised that most scientific work would continue unaffected. “The vast majority of science will go on under this as normal,” he explained, “but the fraction of this research that has the risk of causing a pandemic… we’re going to put in place a framework to make sure that the public has a say.”

“I’m really proud to be here with President Trump, who signed this order ending this research and for the first time, putting in place a real regulatory framework to make it go away forever,” Bhattacharya added.

Suppression of lab-leak evidence

The executive order also represents a deeper reckoning with how early concerns about a lab origin were dismissed.

Early in the pandemic, Trump publicly raised the possibility that Covid-19 may have leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, reportedly based on intelligence assessments.

But his suggestion was swiftly undermined—particularly by those within his own administration. Dr Anthony Fauci, then director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was quietly working to promote the natural origin theory.

Fauci held enormous influence over public health messaging, the media, and scientific institutions. His behind-the-scenes efforts to discredit the lab-leak hypothesis and favour a zoonotic explanation triggered a near-immediate shift in the White House’s public stance.

The campaign to suppress alternative explanations also became visible in leading scientific journals.

In February 2020, The Lancet published a letter organised by Fauci-linked researchers, which labelled lab-origin theories as “conspiracy.” The intent was not to encourage scientific debate, but to squash it.

Weeks later, Nature Medicine released the now-infamous “Proximal Origin” paper, which declared the virus was “not a laboratory construct.” Private emails later revealed that the authors actually had serious doubts and suspected the virus looked engineered.

Together, the two papers helped shut down legitimate scrutiny and created a scientific firewall protecting US-funded research.

Fauci retired in 2022 and, in early 2025, was granted a sweeping pardon by President Biden.

In April this year, the Trump administration launched an official White House website.

It states rather unequivocally: “COVID-19 came from a lab in Wuhan, China. The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), a lab controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), likely leaked the virus that caused the deadliest pandemic in human history.”

The site also alleges that top scientists and government officials in the US helped cover it up.

A turning point

This executive order signals a broader shift in how Trump’s government intends to confront the scientific and political failures of the pandemic era.

For years, unelected bureaucrats silenced dissent, buried contradictory evidence, and steered decisions behind closed doors. Questions about the virus’ origins were dismissed as conspiracy.

Whistleblowers were marginalised and dangerous research continued, shielded from oversight.

Now, with this order, the Trump administration is drawing a line.

By cutting off federal funding for high-risk virus manipulation and imposing new oversight, the order delivers what’s been missing from pandemic policy - that is, the political will to confront uncomfortable truths and a serious effort to prevent a future man-made pandemic.

 Maryanne Demasi PHD