‘History has taught us that viruses have escaped even the most secure labs conducting gain-of-function research,’ Sen. Roger Marshall said.
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) is introducing a resolution on Tuesday to advance his legislation banning federal funding for research that makes some viruses more deadly, a process known as “gain-of-function,” according to a copy of the bill shared with The Epoch Times.
“There are over 1 million reasons why we must stop the deadly gain-of-function research, and that’s the 1.1 million Americans who died of Covid-19,” Dr. Marshall told The Epoch Times on June 3.
“History has taught us that viruses have escaped even the most secure labs conducting gain-of-function research. Until the oversight process is reformed and adequate guidelines are in place to protect us from dangerous outbreaks, we must put an immediate moratorium on this research.”
By introducing the resolution, Dr. Marshall is asking for unanimous consent of the Senate to immediately hold a vote on his legislation, called the Viral Gain-of-Function Research Moratorium Act, which he first introduced in 2021.
The legislation (S.81), which Dr. Marshall reintroduced in January 2023 along with nine original co-sponsors, would place a moratorium on all federal research grants involving gain-of-function research on viruses that would enhance their pathogenicity or transmissibility in any organism.
The resolution acknowledges that the COVID-19 virus is likely the product of gain-of-function research financed by the U.S. government and conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China. The resolution quoted Dr. Anthony Fauci in 2021, with him saying that “it is impossible to guarantee that researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology did not use American funds to perform gain-of-function research on coronaviruses” between 2014 and 2017.
Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, funneled grant money from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to the WIV. He is now suspended from funding after a decision by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last month.
By Frank Fang and Eva Fu
