Bill Text: NJ AR183 | 2022-2023 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Urges U.S. President and Congress to cease funding gain-of-function research.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-03-23 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Health Committee [AR183 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2022-AR183-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman ROBERT AUTH
District 39 (Bergen and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Urges U.S. President and Congress to cease funding gain-of-function research.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Assembly Resolution urging the President and Congress of the United States to cease funding gain-of-function research.
Whereas, Gain-of-function research is biological research that seeks to change the genetic makeup of an organism to give the organism a new property or to alter an existing property; and
Whereas, Gain-of-function research involving viruses and other microorganisms frequently seeks to increase the transmissibility, virulence, immunogenicity, or host tropism by applying selective pressure to a culture; and
Whereas, The purported goal of gain-of-function research is to develop a better understanding of how pathogens respond to environmental pressures, which can be used to determine how a given pathogen could mutate in a way that would allow it to infect humans or to produce a more pathogenic response in humans, as well as to develop vaccines against the pathogen or otherwise prevent the pathogen from becoming transmissible to humans; and
Whereas, Gain-of-function research first gained widespread notoriety in 2012, when research experiments funded by the National Institutes of Health mutated the H5N1 virus, which causes avian influenza and has a mortality rate of 60 percent in humans, to study whether the person-to-person transmissibility of the virus could be increased; and
Whereas, The studies into the H5N1 virus prompted concerns that the mutated virus could be accidentally released into the general populace or could potentially be weaponized; and
Whereas, In response to these concerns, the federal government imposed an eight-month pause on research involving influenza viruses, and subsequently released additional protocols and restrictions on the use of gain-of-function research, particularly with regard to "potential pandemic pathogens"; and
Whereas, Notwithstanding these additional restrictions, it has been theorized that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), was produced in a laboratory that was engaged in gain-of-function research funded by the United States government involving coronaviruses; and
Whereas, Dr. Robert Redfield, the former head of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was serving at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, testified before Congress in March 2023 that he believes the pandemic was the result of a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China; and
Whereas, It has further been alleged that the federal government engaged in a cover-up of its role in funding gain-of-function research that caused the COVID-19 pandemic; and
Whereas, Given the potential for gain-of-function research to produce viruses that are more communicable, more pathogenic, or are better able to evade both natural immunity and vaccinations, which research could then be used to weaponize the virus into an agent of mass destruction, it is the sentiment of this House that the federal government should no longer support gain-of-function research involving pathogenic substances and organisms, either financially or by other means; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. The New Jersey General Assembly respectfully urges the President and the Congress of the United States to cease funding gain-of-function research involving pathogenic substances and organisms.
2. Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Clerk of the General Assembly to the President and Vice President of the United States and to each member of Congress.
STATEMENT
This resolution urges the President and the Congress of the United States to cease funding gain-of-function research involving pathogenic substances and organisms, which is research that seeks to change the genetic makeup of an organism to give the organism a new property or to alter an existing property. Although the purported goal of gain-of-function research is to develop a better understanding of how pathogens respond to environmental pressures in order to develop vaccines against the pathogen or otherwise mitigate the potential for the pathogen to become transmissible to humans, gain-of-function research has the potential to produce viruses that are more communicable or pathogenic, or that are better able to evade both natural immunity and vaccinations in humans.
Given the potential threats posed by gain-of-function research involving pathogens, it is the sentiment of the New Jersey Legislature that the federal government should no longer support gain-of-function research involving pathogenic substances and organisms, either financially or otherwise.
