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Trump restricts research that enhances ‘bugs’
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Trump restricts research that enhances ‘bugs’

Reuters

WASHINGTON—US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday that bans federal funding for gain-of-function research that typically enhances pathogens.

The order also paused any research using “infectious pathogens and toxins in the United States” that could be dangerous to citizens “until a safer, more enforceable, and transparent policy governing such research can be developed and implemented,” according to a fact sheet released by the White House.

The ban on federal funding of gain-of-function research applies to China and Iran, among other countries, the White House said.

Gain-of-function research studies enhancements to pathogens such as Avian influenza, SARS and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS viruses.

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The measure is designed to “drastically reduce the potential for lab-related incidents involving gain-of-function research, like that conducted on bat coronaviruses in China by the EcoHealth Alliance and Wuhan Institute of Virology,” according to the White House factsheet.

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