A group of senators from both parties have passed Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) bill out of committee. The bill would increase executive branch control of life science research that could cause a pandemic. This idea came from the research that was done in Wuhan, China, before the COVID-19 epidemic.
Senator Paul, a senior member of the committee, called the bill “a nonpartisan solution.” The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed S 4667, the Risky Research Review Act, this week by a vote of 8 to 1.
Paul said during a short speech on the bill before the vote, “A million Americans died from COVID.” “We’ll never know if it came from a lab or the wild. Right now, almost every expert thinks it’s possible that it came from the lab. A lot of scientists think it’s possible, but some don’t think it’s likely.”
Scientists are still arguing about where SARS-CoV-2 came from, even though the virus was only found in late 2019, which is almost five years ago. The pandemic has brought up debates that have been going on for decades about what is called “gain-of-function disease research.”
Gain-of-function study, in simple words, is any kind of genetic modification of a pathogen that changes how it infects a host or how easily it spreads.
Paul first brought up the bill in July. It would make the Life Sciences Research Security Board, which would have nine members chosen by the president and approved by the Senate, if it passes. Before giving the go-ahead to projects that might be risky, Paul said this board would add “an extra layer of security.”
Without approval from the board, agencies would not be able to use federal funds for high-risk life sciences research. The board would check that the project plans met the minimum necessary level of biosafety containment as well as technical and practical controls.
