Progress! Senate Holds First Hearing on Dangerous Gain of Function Experiments

Posted by Amanda Nieves
03 August 2022 | Blog


“Gain of function” (GOF) studies are experiments in which viruses are intentionally engineered by reckless white coats to become more transmissible and more deadly. Experts at the FBI, lawmakers, scientists around the world, and most Americans believe that the Wuhan Animal Lab’s dangerous taxpayer-funded coronavirus GOF experiments — first exposed and defunded by White Coat Waste Project (WCW) — caused the COVID pandemic.

Smoking Gun: WCW FOIA investigations proves NIH ignored gain-of-Function Research; Wuhan lab funder calls it “Terrific!”

This Wednesday, August 3, a lot more people learned about the dangers of gain-of-function experiments and what we can do to stop it, thanks to the efforts of Senator (and Waste Warrior!) Rand Paul (R-KY). At Paul’s urging, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee’s spending oversight subcommittee—which is run by Sens. Paul and Maggie Hassan (D-NH)—held a hearing entitled “Revisiting Gain of Function Research: What the Pandemic Taught Us and Where Do We Go From Here.”

A majority of taxpayers oppose funding for GOF and want to see US-led investigations into COVID’s origins, and this is the first ever Senate hearing on GOF. Kudos to Senator Paul for getting it on the books! 

Gain of Function Experiments

The hearing featured longtime GOF critic Dr. Richard Ebright, MIT biologist Dr. Kevin Esvelt, as well as Dr. Steven Quay, who spoke at WCW’s first Congressional briefing on the “lab leak hypothesis” in May 2021.  U.S. Senators Roger Marshall (R-KS), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Ron Johnson (R-WI) also participated in the hearing and questioned these experts.

There were fireworks aplenty at the hearing, including these gems:

Gain of Function Experiments



More notably, there was a lot of agreement on the dangers of GOF experimentation and that it needs to be banned, or severely curtailed — which is precisely why we wrote to the Biden administration in February of 2021, asking him to reinstate President Obama’s moratorium on these 🦇💩 crazy experiments. We’re also backing bipartisan legislation in the House and Senate to halt taxpayer funding for GOF experiments, which are opposed by a majority of Americans.

Gain of Function Experiments

 

In the meantime, if you’re fed up that your tax money is funding dangerous animal experiments at labs all over the world, take action! Tell Congress to pass the AFAR Act today!

Blog Comments

Seeing this hurts my heart. I love dogs so much! I am heart broken !

Please, please, please defund any and all labs that are performing cruel, painful, and barbaric experiments on animals. This must stop.

Add a comment

*Please complete all fields correctly

Related Blogs

Posted by amcdonald | 10 February 2025
  White Coat Waste Project (WCW) was the lead witness at a historic House Oversight Committee hearing on wasteful taxpayer-funded animal experiments In our testimony, we outlined how the U.S....
Posted by amcdonald | 28 January 2025
  Last year, White Coat Waste Project (WCW)’s Seeing Red investigation uncovered horrific taxpayer-funded dog testing in Chinese labs New federal contracts obtained by WCW via FOIA show 300 beagles...
Posted by amcdonald | 28 January 2025
  White Coat Waste (WCW) released a 4-point-plan for the Trump Administration and DOGE that will cut billions in wasteful government spending and save millions of animals WCW proposes defunding...