Senator Marshall Again Calls For the Immediate Halt of Deadly Gain-of-Function Research

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. went to the Senate Floor calling for an ask of immediate consideration of his Legislation, the Viral Gain-of-Function Research Moratorium Act, which would prohibit federal funding of this risky research. Democrats blocked his efforts. 

You may click HERE or on the image above to watch Senator Marshall’s full interview.

Highlights from Senator Marshall’s interview include:

“I rise today to discuss a very serious topic, viral Gain-of-Function research. And I’m calling on this body to place a pause on all viral Gain-of-Function research, just like President Obama did in 2014.”

“Could you imagine the United States participating in nuclear research and sending our scientists sending our money to foreign adversaries to help them with their nuclear weapons research right now, say, a country like Iran, or a country like North Korea, but of course, no one in this body would suggest that that’s a smart thing to do. But people can’t see what viral Gain-of-Function is.”

“Viral Gain-of-Function research, through Covid, has killed over a million Americans, and then worldwide, it’s at least ten times that, maybe 20 times that. And we still have 15 million long Covid sufferers, but we continue to fund, we continue to participate in viral Gain-of-Function research. You’ll stop and ask this body, what do we have to show for it? 30 years of viral gain of function research? And what are the benefits? What have we benefited from this? And just like in January of 2020, when I was the first member of Congress to sound the alarm on Covid virus and the consequences and the pandemic that was coming, I’m here once again, to sound this alarm.”

“Well, first of all, I want to just talk about the risk of lab leaks, no matter what biosecurity level this research is done in, there’s going to be a risk of a lab leak. There’s human error, there’s mechanical error, people not following protocols. We’ve seen it over and over again.”

“The consequences of such an event have proven to be catastrophic. We’ve witnessed this firsthand through the Covid-19 pandemic, then just how fast a virus could spread throughout the world.”

“Just like the Chinese developed a Covid virus to attack human lungs, they could help develop new viruses that could attack our beef cattle, our pigs, our dairy, they can find new viruses to attack the wheat in Kansas, all these things are very feasible by viral Gain-of-Function research.”

“The potential for such misuse makes the dissemination of research findings in this field particularly perilous, and it lowers the barrier for entry for those who might wish to cause this harm.”

“And that’s why we’re here today calling for this body to pass our Viral Gain-of-Function Research Moratorium Act. Our bill will prohibit federal funding of this research allowing time for an honest conversation about the pros and cons of Gain-of-Function research, setting up guardrails and ensuring a system of checks and balances.”

“Getting transparency for the American people for what happened during the pandemic shouldn’t be controversial. I hope my colleagues will join me in agreeing that if we can’t measure it, we can’t manage it, especially when we’re discussing the creation of lethal viruses at the taxpayers expense. The federal government should not provide another diamond funding for viral Gain-of Function research in the deceptive name of global health and national security.”

“For these reasons, I’m proud to be back here on the Senate floor to sound the alarm again, and call for the immediate passage of our bill, the Viral Gain-of-Function Moratorium Act.”