Trump signs order restricting funding for gain-of-function research, says it is 'dangerous'

WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump signed a new executive order Monday to cut off all federal funding for what is known as gain-of-function research, implying that the method is "dangerous" and may have been responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The research method involves manipulating a pathogen or toxin to alter an organism's functions or processes. The American Society for Microbiology said the type of research "has had a positive impact on basic and applied life science research.”

But Trump has maintained it is "dangerous," and his new order furthered his theory that the COVID-19 pandemic was due to a lab leak from a coronavirus facility in Wuhan, China.

“It can leak out like from Wuhan. And a lot of people think that. I think I said that right from day one, it leaked out,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “A scientist walked outside to have lunch with a girlfriend, or was together with a lot of people, but that was how it leaked out, in my opinion.”

American intelligence agencies remain divided on their assessments on the virus' origin.

The White House said the funding moratorium will remain in effect "until a safer, more enforceable, and transparent policy governing such research can be developed and implemented."

The director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Security Advisor are directed to implement the freeze within 120 days. The order says that those found to be in violation of the new policy face a five-year suspension in federal funding.