US Senate Passes Amendment To Permanently Ban Funding For ‘Gain Of Function’ Research In China
The amendment was proposed by Libertarian-leaning Republican Senator Rand Paul and was co-sponsored by other Senators including Ron Johnson, Tommy Tuberville, Roger Marshall and Mike Braun.
“We don’t know whether the pandemic started in a lab in Wuhan or evolved naturally,” Paul said in a statement.
“While many still deny funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan, experts believe otherwise. The passage of my amendment ensures that this never happens in the future. No taxpayer money should have ever been used to fund gain-of-function research in Wuhan, and now we permanently have put it to a stop,” he added.
Senate Amendment 2003 bans the National Institutes of Health and any other US agency from funding any gain-of-function research in China.