A U.S. Senate committee has begun hearings on Rand Paul's Risky Research Act, meant to oversee dangerous scientific experiments like the gain-of-function research in Wuhan that allegedly led to the Covid pandemic..
Senate Committee Wrestles With Risks and Benefits of Virus Research | MedPage Today | Shannon Firth:
July 11, 2024 - "Lawmakers and scientists debated the best ways to regulate high-risk government-funded virus research during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Thursday. One prominent witness called for a moratorium on gain-of-function research, while another stressed the risks of not pursuing certain kinds of experiments. Meanwhile, some committee members leveraged their time at the dais to grill former public health leaders about the lab-leak theory of COVID-19's origins and to accuse them of complicity in a cover-up.
"'Today, thousands of skilled individuals can create infectious viruses using commercially available synthetic DNA that corresponds to publicly accessible viral genome sequences,' Kevin Esvelt, PhD, of the MIT Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, told the committee. He argued that the U.S. needs a 'systemic reappraisal' to define which types of DNA, pathogens, and experiments are safe and which are dangerous. He urged Congress to establish and fund an independent board to determine which laboratories should be granted access to which agents and sequences, to determine when the benefits of 'dual use research' -- that is, research that can lead to either benefits or harms -- exceed the risks, and to assess and determine when disclosing a genome sequence or an experimental outcome 'would cause irreparable harm to national security'....
"Former CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD, testified -- not for the first time -- that the most likely theory of COVID-19's origins was biomedical research followed by an accidental lab leak. 'Unfortunately, the potential national security consequences of conducting the research did not receive full consideration prior to the funding decisions to conduct such high-risk research,' Redfield said. He argued that while some scientists believe gain-of-function research is vital to 'get ahead of viruses' and to develop vaccines and countermeasures, he believes it had the 'exact opposite effect' and blames such research for unleashing a new virus in the world without any means of stopping it. 'In my opinion, we should call for a moratorium on gain-of-function research until we have a broader debate and come to consensus as a community [about] the value of such research,' Redfield said.
"Ranking Member Rand Paul, MD (R-Ky.), who has publicly stated for months that he believes that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was the result of a lab leak, levied the same allegations of a 'vast COVID cover-up' and of federal funding being used to support gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 'You don't need to be convinced that COVID-19 virus originated from a lab leak to recognize the imminent need for oversight mechanisms,' he said. 'The mere possibility that the virus could have emerged from such risky research should be more than enough to prompt decisive action.'
"On Wednesday, Paul introduced the "Risky Research Review Act, which calls for creating an independent oversight board to review high-risk life sciences research and issue 'binding determinations' related to federal funding. Redfield heartily supported the bill, as did Sen. Roger Marshall, MD (R-Kan.), who declared that it would 'save tens of millions of lives.' And Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he still needed to review the document but was likely to back it."
Read more: https://www.medpagetoday.com/washington-watch/washington-watch/111059
Does It Bother You?': Rand Paul Questions Ex-CDC Director About Gain-Of-Function Research | Forbes Breaking News | July 11, 2024:
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