Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that NIAID had told STAT that the gain-of-function study involving mpox was never formally proposed. That information was relayed from health officials to House investigators.
WASHINGTON — Republican leaders of a prominent committee overseeing federal health agencies are pushing to crack down on certain viral pathogen research with a new oversight panel.
GOP staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee recommended in a report Tuesday that the federal government “remove final review and approval” for so-called gain-of-function research from the National Institutes of Health and its infectious disease arm. The authority over these types of studies — which involve making a virus more transmissible or virulent in a lab, and are seen by some as risky — would go to a “wholly independent” entity that would publish reports of its decisions.
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