As senators sparred yet again with Fauci at a congressional hearing last week, he announced that his agency has followed the rules for funding "gain-of-function" research, which can make certain viruses more deadly or transmissible. Though he obfuscated how he played a part in creating those same regulations, which officials and some scientists say are too weak.
"The guide rails for what can be done were not established by me, they were by a three-year process led by the Office of Science and Technology at the White House," Fauci announced of gain-of-function study at the hearing.
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After some high-profile lab accidents, in 2014, the U.S. government halted federal funding of gain-of-function research. In 2017, the study resumed under a new Potential Pandemic Pathogens Control and Oversight (P3CO) Framework, with a review committee founded within the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) to supervise federal funding of such research.
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Throughout those three years, with Fauci's input, the review committee was stripped of its power to veto suggested research, as The Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters David Willman and Madison Muller stressed in an in-depth investigation last year. The definition of the research the panel reviews (the definition that Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and other senators keep arguing about with Fauci) was narrowed to exclude some possibly dangerous viruses.
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Summarizing its discoveries on the research review committee, the Post says that both Fauci and then-director of the National Institutes of Health Francis Collins:
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"in recent years have helped shape policy changes, directly and through their aides, that undercut the committee's authority, according to federal documents, congressional testimony and interviews with dozens of present and former officials and science experts."
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"In 2017, a change made under their watch removed the committee's power to block the [gain-of-function] projects, recasting the panel as strictly an advisory body."
"Another change at that time redefined gain-of-function research, giving NIH leaders greater leeway to approve projects without referring them to the review committee. Some researchers had complained that far-reaching reviews would slow NIH approvals and scientific progress.
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Since then, the experiments have continued to unfold amid secrecy, and HHS, which administers the review committee, has kept its work confidential."
"In an interview for this report, both Collins and Fauci and their senior aides disputed that the policy changes had weakened oversight of the research. "
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