Robert Redfield to Newsmax: Moratorium on Gain-of-Function Research ‘Very Important’

Dr. Robert Redfield, the former director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Newsmax on Wednesday that he fully supports President Donald Trump’s moratorium on gain-of-function research, calling the funding freeze for such experiments “very important.”

On Monday, Trump signed an executive order aimed at curbing gain-of-function research — which he blames for creating the COVID-19 pandemic — by halting funding to countries where such research takes place. The president’s order named China as an example of a “country of concern.”

“I did an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal back in 2021, really calling on our government to put a moratorium on it,” Redfield said on “Wake Up America.” “There’s really no scientific advantage for doing this type of research and there’s a real downside in terms of creating pathogens that may cause problems that we don’t have countermeasures [for], like the COVID-19 virus, which I do believe was a direct consequence of gain-of-function research.”

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