Federal health officials misled a House panel investigation into potentially risky mpox virus research, Republican Energy and Commerce Committee officials said in an interim report Tuesday.
Over an 18-month period, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) “repeatedly obstructed and misled the Committee” about research that was being carried out. done by an agency scientist to alter a strain of the mpox virus, according to the report.
The committee sought information from the NIH and HHS to better understand the potential risks and benefits of the experiment, first described in an interview with Science magazine, but the report says the agency largely blocked those requests.
“The Committee has lost confidence in the ability of NIH and NIAID to oversee their own research into potential pandemic pathogens or potential pandemic pathogens and to fairly determine whether an experiment poses an unacceptable risk to biosafety or public health ,” committee officials wrote.
Only after the committee threatened a subpoena did HHS officials admit the agency approved the research.
HHS maintains that although it granted approval, the riskier investigation was never carried out.
“The experiment referenced by the committee was never carried out, of which the committee is aware. HHS remains committed to ensuring the security of biomedical research,” said an HHS spokesperson.
“The committee is looking for an issue where none exists. HHS and its divisions, including NIH, follow rigorous biosafety measures as our scientists work to better understand and protect the public from infectious diseases – like mpox,” the spokesperson added.
But the report noted that “no documentation or any other evidence was produced to substantiate the claim.”
The committee argues that the NIH approved the study in 2015 and only revoked the authorization when the committee began asking questions.
“This deliberate and prolonged effort to mislead the Committee is unacceptable and potentially criminal,” the staff report states. “The Committee needs additional evidence from HHS, NIH, or NIAID to be certain that the experiment did not occur.”
NIH scientist Bernard Moss said in a 2022 Science paper that he planned to work to understand the severity of the mpox virus by inserting genes from a more lethal version of the virus into a less deadly strain.
The committee alleges the experiments were “gain of function” research, which has become a flashpoint among Republicans amid investigations into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and the possibility that the virus came from a Chinese laboratory.
A second GOP aide said the Energy and Commerce Committee is planning a hearing in the “coming weeks” on COVID-19 and lab safety
The interim report is part of an investigation into NIH research practices that the committee first launched in 2022, with a particular focus on the mpox and Moss experiments.
“The plan is to continue the investigation because there’s a lot of information and documents that we’re still waiting on … to get an account of what actually happened here,” said a GOP committee staff member.
“We are pushing as hard as we can and they barely give us anything,” the employee said. “And this is a destruction of the norms that Congress and NIH have previously engaged in.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
