A congressional report released last year found that the COVID-19 pandemic arose from gain-of-function research, a process which involves modifying a virus to make it more deadly or infectious.

This week saw President Donald Trump move to block gain-of-function research by banning federal funding for it. 

Order aims to "drastically reduce the potential for lab-related incidents"

According to Breitbart, that ban came in the form of an executive order which Trump signed in the White House earlier this week.

Trump signs executive order ending federal funding of dangerous gain-of-function research in countries of concern like China. pic.twitter.com/ur1crkSWGY

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) May 5, 2025

Fox News cited a White House statement which noted how "President Trump has long theorized that COVID-19 originated from a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and has consistently pushed for transparency in investigating its origins."

The statement stressed that Trump's order "will drastically reduce the potential for lab-related incidents involving gain-of-function research, like that conducted on bat coronaviruses in China by the EcoHealth Alliance and Wuhan Institute of Virology."

NIH director highlights threat posed by gain-of-function research

"For decades, policies overseeing gain-of-function research on pathogens, toxins, and potential pathogens have lacked adequate enforcement, transparency, and top-down oversight," it alleged.

The statement further complained that "[r]esearchers have not acknowledged the legitimate potential for societal harms that this kind of research poses."

Jay Bhattacharya serves as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and he was present in the Oval Office on Monday to witness Trump sign the executive order regarding gain-of-function research funding.

"Any nation that engages in this research endangers their own population, as well as the world, as we saw during the COVID pandemic," Breitbart quoted the health official as saying.

RFK Jr.: "We cannot point to a single good thing" brought by gain-of-function

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was present in the Oval Office as well, and he also welcomed the president's decision.

"In all of the history of gain-of-function research, we cannot point to a single good thing that has come of it," Kennedy declared.

The HHS secretary later reiterated his thoughts in a post on social media, writing, "Thank you [President Trump] for signing this historic Executive Order today."

"There's no laboratory that’s immune from leaks — and this is going to prevent inadvertent leaks from happening in the future and endangering humanity," Kennedy went on to write.