Trump has stopped funding research on dangerous viruses

US President Donald Trump has signed a decree completely ending the use of the federal budget to fund research on potentially dangerous viruses with acquired mutations like COVID-19. The document was published on May 5 on the White House website.

"Executive Order: terminates any current and all future federal funding for dangerous research in countries of concern such as China and Iran, as well as in foreign countries deemed to have insufficient oversight of research," the document says.

The decree also authorizes American research agencies to identify and terminate federal funding for other biological research "that may pose a threat to public health and public safety in the United States."

A separate paragraph in the document emphasizes the ban on financing foreign research, which "may provoke a new pandemic." According to the drafters of the document, the measures taken "will dramatically reduce the likelihood of laboratory-related incidents."

The decree also states the need to protect US citizens from possible accidents and incidents in the field of biosafety, such as those that Washington believes could lead to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The administration of [former US President Joe] Biden allowed dangerous research to acquire functions with insufficient oversight and actively approved federal funding for life sciences research in China and other countries," the document said.

Covid will be: a dangerous new virus has been found in bats in China

Researchers emphasize that it does not yet pose a great danger to humans

Earlier, on April 19, the White House announced that the COVID-19 pandemic occurred as a result of a virus leak from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan. They named five arguments as confirmation of the unnatural origin of the virus, including the unnatural properties of the pathogen.