Secretive Committee On Risky Virus Research Should Be More Open, Chair SaysThe committee created to oversee federally funded ‘gain of function’ research operates in secrecy and lacks independence.BY: ELEANOR BARTOW
APRIL 22, 2022
The secret committee created to oversee federally funded “gain of function” research that can make dangerous viruses even more deadly should be more transparent in its review process, according to the chairman of that committee, House Republicans revealed this week.
The “review process continues to be unnecessarily shrouded in secrecy,” wrote House Committee on Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., in a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra.
Gain-of-function research projects are supposed to be reviewed by a committee as part of guidelines known as Potential Pandemic Pathogens Control and Oversight (P3CO) Framework, created in 2017 after a three-year pause on such research following several lab-related incidents that raised public concerns.
Chris Hassell, the chairman of the P3CO virus research review committee and its only public member, “acknowledged a strong interest in improving the transparency of the HHS P3CO review process and the need for more transparency,” according to the letter.
“None of the HHS departmental review process for approving enhanced PPP [Potential Pandemic Pathogens] experiments is public,” the letter states. “HHS review should make public who participates in the review, as well as the basis of the decision that the research is acceptable to fund, including the U.S. government’s (USG’s) calculation of the potential benefits and risks of the proposed enhanced PPP research.”
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NIH Won’t Even Say How Much Research Gets FundedIndicating the lack of transparency, National Institutes of Health officials will not disclose how many gain-of-function projects they have funded.
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Source:
https://thefederalist.com/2022/04/22/secretive-committee-on-risky-virus-research-should-be-more-open-chair-says/
