Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul will introduce legislation Wednesday that would provide oversight for gain of function research funding by establishing an independent board responsible for reviewing and approving federal funding for high-risk life sciences research.
The Daily Caller first obtained a copy of the legislation, which is titled The Risky Research Review Act. The bill would specifically create the “Life Sciences Research Security Board,” an independent entity “within the Executive Branch.” The Board would provide oversight over life sciences research funding across the federal government to protect “public health, safety, or national security.” There would be nine seats on the board.
The legislation specifically focused on high-risk life sciences research that “could pose a threat to public health, safety, or national security,” including “gain of function research,” research involving “genetic modification” or “synthetic creation of a potential pandemic pathogen,” and “activities involving the collection or surveillance of” potential pandemic pathogens. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Paul Demands Information On NIH Employee Using Personal Email To Allegedly Conceal COVID-19 Origins)
In a conversation with the Caller before introducing the bill, Paul explained that there needs to be oversight outside of the NIH and HHS and that this bill would do just that. Paul also explained how dangerous he believes gain of function research to be.
“The pandemic killed about 15 million people worldwide, about a million Americans. We believe that the evidence overwhelmingly points towards the pandemic being a leak of dangerous research from a lab in Wuhan. We think this research is ongoing not only in China, but in the United States as well,” Paul said. “This research was funded by our NIH, and we think there needs to be more restrictions on taxpayer money going to this type of dangerous research. We think part of the problem is that the oversight has been the NIH policing themselves. But from the get go for more than a decade, probably for 15 years. Anthony Fauci has been an advocate of gain of function research.”
“There’s been a spirited debate and, I would say the scientific community’s divided on that, with Anthony Fauci being among the most extreme in not believing there’s any danger to this kind of research. But the recreation of smallpox, a recreation of the Spanish flu, the, mutation of the avian flu to be transmittable to mammals. All these things are very dangerous. And so this bill basically attempts to have better oversight,” Paul added. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Rand Paul, Senate Republicans Demand CIA Explain Whistleblower’s COVID-19 Allegations In Follow-Up)
READ THE LEGISLATION HERE:
(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers
Dr. Redfield, the Former Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the Caller that: “This is a very important bill which when implemented will ensure national security is prioritized when making US life science funding decisions. If we had this bill in place ten years ago we could have prevented the Covid pandemic.”
Fauci has repeatedly testified to Congress that the U.S. government has not funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), from which proponents of the lab-leak theory believe COVID-19 escaped. The WIV received U.S. taxpayer dollars via a NIAID sub-grant to EcoHealth Alliance, a medical non-profit. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Top Republicans Demand Answers On Government-Funded Gain-Of-Function Research)
Documents published by The Intercept show the NIAID provided federal funds to the U.S. nonprofit group EcoHealth Alliance and the WIV to construct laboratory-generated SARS and MERS-related coronaviruses. (RELATED: Newly Released Documents Show Fauci Was ‘Untruthful’ About Wuhan Coronavirus Research, Infectious Disease Expert Says)
Paul accused Fauci of lying about the definition of gain-of-function research, and submitted a criminal referral to the Department of Justice requesting an investigation. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: House Oversight Republicans Demand Answers From Fauci, Collins Over Grant To Wuhan Lab)
Many Republican lawmakers called for Fauci’s resignation after thousands of his emails from the beginning of the global pandemic were published by The Washington Post and Buzzfeed News. The emails contained comments on wearing masks, the lab leak theory and more.
