By Matt Field, May 12, 2023
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis at an event where he signed a bill to ban research on so-called "enhanced potential pandemic pathogens."
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has made a national name for himself by inserting his state’s government into charged issues like classroom discussions of sexual orientation and social-justice-oriented education. Widely seen to be eying a presidential campaign, DeSantis now has a new target: enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research.
On Thursday, the governor signed a host of bills on hot-button issues-of-the-day among Republican politicians and voters, including one that would prevent research involving potentially pandemic capable viruses that result from “enhancing the transmissibility or virulence of a pathogen.” The US Department of Health and Human Services is reviewing recommendations to tighten its requirements for funding such projects, known colloquially as “gain of function” research, but DeSantis has now leapfrogged any federal decision.
“We are the first state in the United States to ban, formally, gain of function research,” DeSantis said to cheers from a Florida audience.
According to the law, “any research that is reasonably likely to create an enhanced potential pandemic pathogen or that has been determined by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, another federal agency, or a state agency…to create such a pathogen is prohibited in this state.”
Biomedical research is a hot topic among Republicans as the Republican-controlled House investigates the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. One theory holds that laboratory research in Wuhan, China—which included projects partially funded with US research dollars to analyze hybrid bat coronaviruses—was responsible for the emergence of the pandemic. The so-called “lab-leak” theory, however, is far from proven fact, with many scientists ascribing to the other leading hypothesis for how the pandemic began, with the spillover of the COVID-19 coronavirus at a market selling wildlife.
But the scientific uncertainty regarding the origins of the pandemic didn’t deter DeSantis from expressing confidence in the lab leak theory. “What we know is there was gain of function research being conducted at Wuhan, and that very likely led to the emergence of COVID-19,” DeSantis said. “And yet there really isn’t effective regulation.”
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WHAT NEEDS TO BE BANNED IS DESANTIS. HE NEEDS TO GO.
DeSantis means we are the first state in the United States to ban science
There are somewhere near a million meat markets in China and a similar number outside China in Southeast Asia. If Covid-19 came in from the wild, it could have shown up anywhere. It showed up in the same town as the Chinese Level IV virus lab. While it is possible Covid-19 came from an imported animal, the most likely scenario is a laboratory leak by somebody walking out of the lab and spreading to the market. Neither we nor the Chinese may ever know for sure where it came from. What can be said is that it is insane to build Level IV bio facilities in the middle of cities where one mistake can create a global pandemic. The realistic choices are either (1) ban gain of function and similar research or (2) move these facilities to isolated areas where have some chance to contain leaks. The record is that these facilities do have leaks and there is no reason to believe the Chinese are better or worse than we are--perhaps just unlucky. The real problem here is that the bio-science community has put convenience to the scientific community ahead of common-sense safety
Hopefully. DeSantis will fall off the edge of his flat Earth. What a schmuck.
Without xuch research, it is impossible to develop defences including vaccines. Is de Santis an enemy agent, or simply a moron? Either way, he is a major security risk.....
The Bulletin used to be progressive. Since then it has sold its soul in order to be acceptable to the current miserable, corrupt national security morass. This article is a good example of this trend. By now, it is quite clear that COVID was created in gain-of-function projects funded by DARPA and NIAID at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. "Spillover at a market selling wildlife" is baseless cover-up. Of course gain-of-function, essentially a bioweapons technology, must be banned. I don't care by whom.
Gain-of-Function research is, in fact, extremely dangerous.
It is foolish to criticize this ban just because DeSantis supports it.
Be prepared ..... the DeSantis Bio-police are coming. He has to go after a few people to show how 'tuff' he is. If I were a Bio-researcher or virologist in FL, I'd look very carefully at how my research could be mis-characterized into a FL 'threat'. It might also be prudent to dust off the resume and see if there are better places to work. You might find one and maybe even be able to take some of your grants with you. Good Luck
Good for DeSantis. It's a shame your organization doesn't recognize the brilliance and integrity of Dr. Robert Malone, among many other scientists who are speaking out against the medical-industrial complex. DeSantis does.
But wait, I thought Covid was "not that bad, fake, a hoax, god's work", etc? Oh, that's right, fascists never have coherent or consistent talking points. Maybe we shouldn't let them be governors, or anything else important for that matter.