Trump Signs Order Targeting Gain-of-Function Virus Research

President Donald Trump signed an executive order looking to limit federal funding for gain-of-function research that involves altering pathogens, suggesting the efforts could have been responsible for the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It could have been that we didn’t have the problem we had,” Trump told reporters Monday as he signed the executive order in the White House.

While the origins of the coronavirus pandemic remain unclear, some US intelligence agencies have concluded it’s likely that Covid-19 broke out from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Scientists, including at that lab, use both breeding practices and genetic engineering to make ...