Mr. President, I rise today to ask the Senate body to join me in the stopping of the funding of viral gain-of-function research. Viral gain-of-function research is what led, of course, to the COVID…
Mr. President, I rise today to ask the Senate body to join me in the stopping of the funding of viral gain-of-function research.
Viral gain-of-function research is what led, of course, to the COVID virus being developed and, of course, the COVID epidemic. I think it is important to pause and stop and think why this is still important--what is it now--5 or 6 years later.
We all know we lost 1 million Americans to this COVID virus. Twenty million Americans still suffer from long COVID. Many, many Americans died alone--maybe at a nursing home, maybe in their own home. But they weren't allowed to have their own children, their spouses come visit them in those last moments of their life.
We had tens of millions of students miss their senior year of high school, their senior year of college. Maybe it was the State track meet. Maybe it was the State softball team they had been working on their whole life.
We have kids that still have learning disabilities or are lagging in their learning--specifically reading--not to mention their social interactions and their social development. This COVID virus left a huge physical, economic, and emotional scar on America.
And that is why I am asking that we stop this viral gain-of-function research. I am so proud that the President, recently, has agreed to stop the funding. I have been calling for the stopping of this since 2021 as well.
And I think it is important to realize how Anthony Fauci evaded the intentions of Congress and the rules from his own White House. Even President Obama asked him to stop doing viral gain-of-function research, but, of course, Anthony Fauci had more attorneys than Carter has pills, and they always found some loophole. Then, when they couldn't do it here, he offshored the funding of this.
Make no mistake about it, the United States was funding viral gain- of-function research for decades. This was Anthony Fauci's baby. He thought that this was his ticket to a Nobel Prize.
You know, whether you are a physician, like myself, or a mom or dad or a businessperson, a military officer, you always had to sit there and weigh the benefits and the risks of something like this.
I mean, what the benefits are, I am not sure of. You know, maybe they said it was so that if some unknown organism appeared, that we would be able to develop a vaccine. But, of course, the downside was always the fear of risk of a virus they made in a laboratory, of it escaping.
And, of course, why wouldn't there be? Multiple times in history, viruses, microorganisms have escaped from laboratories. It is practically impossible to control it. In 1978, a smallpox virus escaped from a lab in the United Kingdom. In 2007, foot-and-mouth virus accidently released from a United Kingdom lab. In 2014, the CDC had an anthrax issue. Again, in 2014, NIH-FDA, there were unsecured smallpox vials seen.
These mice they were doing experiments on and infecting them with these monster viruses, from time to time, escaped.
So it seems like we were set up for failure. And, again, despite scientist after scientist, President after President, warning Anthony Fauci to stop doing this research, he persisted and he persisted and he persisted, until finally COVID-19 was accidentally released from a lab in Wuhan, China. And the rest is history.
And that is why I think it is so important that we stop the funding for this once and for all. Let's codify what the President has done here and make sure--at least until someone can come to this Congress and say: Look, we have a foolproof system for keeping this in control.
But when you are making monster viruses, the worst-case scenario is probably some type of terrorism; that it would be so easy, once these are made, to be replicated and turned into a terrorist weapon--much more of a serious consequential threat to America than nuclear warheads are.
Think about this: This virus alone has exponentially been more lethal than all the years of nuclear weapons.
This bill does one simple thing: It stops Federal tax dollars from funding the kind of research that could turn a virus into a weapon--no more offshoring risks to avoid oversight, no more asking permission from the very Agencies that created the problem.
Mr. President, that is why today, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged from further consideration of S. 738 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
