NIH Director’s Claims About Funding Risky Research in China Come Under Scrutiny

Acting Director of the National Institutes of Health Lawrence Tabak testifies during a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and the Subcommittee on Health hearing about the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in Washington on Feb. 8, 2023. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The head of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) claimed in front of Congress on Feb. 8 that the United States has never funded a category of risky research in China, and that the work that was funded by America could not have led to the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics say both assertations are dubious or false.

Dr. Lawrence Tabak, the acting NIH director, told members of Congress that the NIH is not financially supporting any research in foreign countries involving enhanced potential pandemic pathogens (ePPPs), or pathogens that are highly transmissible and virulent and result from enhancing the transmissibility and/or virulence of a pathogen.