Draft bill would ban CDC, NIH from funding lab research in China

A proposal moving through Congress to bar the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from funding research laboratories in China is sparking concern among scientists. If signed into law, the measure could cut off millions of dollars of U.S. funds flowing to collaborative research projects in several areas, including HIV/AIDS, cancer, mental health, and flu surveillance. The proposed ban, part of a 2023 spending bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations on 30 June, grew out of suspicions among some lawmakers, so far unsupported by evidence, that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China released the coronavirus that started the current pandemic, as well as objections to other potentially risky biomedical experiments involving animals. Specifically, the measure would bar the Department of Health and Human Services (the parent agency of NIH and CDC) from funding WIV or “any other laboratory” in China, Russia, or any country the U.S. government has designated a foreign adversary, a list that currently includes Iran and North Korea. The measure’s sponsor, Representative Chris Stewart (R–UT), says the ban is aimed at ensuring the United States does not fund “dangerous research” in “uncontrolled environments” overseas. Some scientific organizations are concerned by the proposal’s expansive scope. “It seems a bit extreme,” says Ev...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research