THE US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and its gain-of-function research – previously referred to by some as ‘bioweapons research’ – are back in the news. On May 5 President Trump signed an Executive Order aimed at improving the safety of biological research in the US and around the world. The order, while stating that it does not impede ‘productive biological research’, prohibits the US government from funding gain-of-function research in China and Iran and pauses certain high-risk pathogen research in the US until a more robust oversight framework is established.
At the time, US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a long-term critic of this dangerous research, told the Newsmax journalist Greta Van Susteren: ‘Gain-of-function is an area of science where scientists really play God, and they’re taking pathogenic viruses and they’re making them more transmissible, they’re making them more virulent, and they’re making them more deadly.’
Yet in a move that appears contradictory, the week before the announcement, Dr Jay Bhattacharya, director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), appointed Dr Jeffrey Taubenberger, the virologist who resurrected the extinct 1918 influenza virus in the laboratory, as the interim replacement for Dr Anthony Fauci as NIAID Director. Taubenberger will lead the review of the high-risk pathogen research oversight framework.
Taubenberger’s appointment followed the suspension in March 2025 of Dr Jeanne Marrazzo who replaced Dr Fauci in August 2023. In September, after she was dismissed and filed a whistleblower report, it emerged that Dr Marrazzo strongly opposed efforts championed by RFK Jr to cancel vaccine research and clinical trials.
The 1918 influenza outbreak and its surrounding mythology to which Taubenberger has contributed has been central to military biological warfare planning scenarios since the Cold War. The narrative is that a deadly 1918-like respiratory virus would emerge from nowhere once again, spread around the world and kill millions.
Not surprisingly, given its appearance of the fox being put in charge of the henhouse, Taubenberger’s appointment immediately drew the ire of scientists such as Dr Richard Ebright of Rutgers University who want to restrict any such research that has the potential to create health risks in the event of any pathogen escaping or being released from a laboratory. Ebright was a prominent voice amongst the scientists whose concerns over this sort of research led to the 2014 gain-of-function moratorium. Dr Ebright said he found Taubenberger’s appointment ‘baffling . . . Taubenberger is part of the problem at NIAID, not part of the solution’.
The US government claims the right to do gain-of-function work for civilian purposes in order to pre-emptively develop vaccines to defend against bio-terrorism. It’s been under pressure from some scientists to restrict this work since 2014 when the gain-of-function funding moratorium that lasted three years was imposed.
Dr Taubenberger, who served as the chief of viral pathogenesis and evolution under Fauci, came to public attention nearly 30 years ago for his research into 1918 influenza virus. In 1997, when he was working at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Maryland, he led a project which identified the genetic sequence of the 1918 influenza virus purported to have killed between 50million and 100million people around the world in a matter of months. (The estimated death toll for 1918 influenza was reassessed about 20 years ago resulting in upwards revision from 20million. Surely there was no nefarious agenda there to engineer excuses to justify greater investment in medical countermeasures?)
Most of the 1918 victims died of bacterial pneumonia and Taubenberger’s analysis ignores altogether the widespread malnutrition in Europe due to the cumulative effect of a four-year war and naval blockade, malnourished people being more readily predisposed to getting sick. There were no medical interventions available such as vaccines, anti-virals or antibiotics.
Taubenberger moved from the Department of Defenceto the NIAID in 2006, continuing in a civilian setting ‘gain-of-function’ and ‘loss-of-function’ research on this reconstructed virus to study its pathogenicity. Gene segments of the reconstructed virus were inserted into other influenza viruses to see if they became more or less pathogenic. Research of this type, previously called bioweapons research which is prohibited for obvious reasons, was controversial even then.
The controversy over Taubenberger doesn’t end with his past work on recreating extinct viruses. On May 1, 2025, the NIAID announced it was committing $500million in funding for the development of broadly protective influenza vaccine under what it is calling the Generation Gold Standard program.
Robert Kennedy said: ‘Our commitment is clear: every innovation in vaccine development must be grounded in gold standard science and transparency, and subjected to the highest standards of safety and efficacy testing.’
This project is being positioned as a potential platform alternative to the mRNA platform, and was the first signal of a shift away from it. On May 29, Kennedy’s department announced that it was cancelling a $700million contract with Moderna to develop an H5N1 avian flu vaccine. This was followed by a further announcement in August of a ‘co-ordinated wind-down’ of mRNA vaccine projects by the US government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). This directive affected 22 projects valued at approximately $500 million.
The problem with the Generation Gold Standard project is that Taubenberger has a conflict of interest that doesn’t look good. He is named in a 2019 patent application as a co-inventor of the broadly protective influenza vaccine but he was also involved in developing the Generation Gold Standard program as well. This highlights the companion problem to the gain-of-function work that creates endless new potential viral threats – US government scientists stand to personally profit from the racket. Perhaps that’s where the real reform is needed.
