New US President Donald Trump's administration is preparing an executive order that would freeze federal funding for "risky and controversial" research on viruses that pose a growing threat to human pathogens.
This was reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, citing sources. The order would strip scientists of US funding for research that modifies viruses to reveal new features, including their ability to resist drug treatments.
Many virologists believe that such research is necessary to prepare humanity for future epidemics, emphasizes The Wall Street Journal. "Stopping the research needed to protect us is a terrible idea.
You can bury your head in the sand, but there are many viral threats out there, and you can't deal with them without understanding the nature of viruses," says immunologist Gigi Gronval. Moreover, if Trump signs such a decree, the US may seriously lag behind other countries that do not stop scientific experiments, the newspaper warns.
Some Republicans claim that such research in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan contributed to the emergence of the COVID-19 epidemic, the newspaper writes. It is noted that the content of the decree is still being discussed, it may not refer to the H5N1 bird flu virus and other infections.
