A week after the inauguration, US Senator Rand Paul van Kentucky issued a flurry of congress day experiences to 14 agencies, including the NIH and HHS. The Senator said the ongoing investigation is being conducted to “criticize the process that made this dangerous research possible, which led to the pandemic.”

In one subpoena sent to a Pentagon Agency, Paul is looking for “all records related to the unveiling of whistleblower or complaints of waste, fraud and abuse that originated the origin of Covid-19, Profit of Function Research , double use of concerns or life sciences involves research, ”according to a copy of the summons provided to Wired. He also seeks any financing that USAID and other departments have provided to Echealth Alliance.

A staff at one of the agencies targeted by the summons says that they have provided the senator to tens of thousands of records under previous summonses – from those who have proven to do critical work in the detection and outbreaks of infectious diseases across The world. And yet, they say, they feel that they are still being targeted by Paul and other Republicans with the claim that they are building biaweapons. “It won’t die.”

Many of the sources that spoke to Wired said they feared that this witch hunt could accelerate in the coming months. More sharply, they are concerned that America is destroying, investigating and responding to the outbreaks of infectious diseases.

“They have an assumption that virology research is inherently dangerous and that there are really not many benefits for it,” says Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the vaccine and infectious diseases at the University of Saskatchewan.

“They are just going to completely unbutton the science and our understanding of the world, and our ability to fight pandemics, hurricanes, earthquakes, fires and all the rest of it,” predicts one researcher, “which is stupid as a rock. ‘

It doesn’t seem to bother Kennedy. In at least two of his books, he characterizes virtually all virological work as a research on biowapons. In a speech in November 2023 to the virulent anti-vaccine group children’s health defense, which he served as chairman of his aborted presidential campaign, Kennedy promised to give an infectious disease a break for about eight years. ‘

The consequences

That potential turn away from research on infectious diseases and comes to chronic diseases because the US faces an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu. ‘Our epidemiologists are [looking for] The very first case of human-to-human transfer is not even a needle in a hay-making-it is a needle in a stack of needles, ‘said the former CDC official.

Last Wednesday night, a senior advisor at the CDC who is responsible for the H5N1 policy reaction, Erin Abramsohn, announced her resignation. In a LinkedIn post, Abramsohn quoted to work with her team through ‘chaos and uncertainty, transition, reorganization, preparation and response’, and call her efforts to back up her files before resigning.

Rasmussen and some colleagues also ran to archive the large amounts of government research, for fear that it could be taken completely offline – as was done at USAID and elsewhere.

The former CDC official adds that the new administration seems to be changed to changing the vaccine that will be recommended to the public, and how the CDC can communicate the efficacy of the vaccine – especially to vulnerable populations. Like most US government agencies, CDC and NIH have also received edicts to remove references to diversity, fairness and inclusion initiatives and inclusion on their websites.

“We had to through the investigations and documents and internal and external sites through the recording questions,” we say, “says the ex-CDC official. “If you can’t get it right, you deduct the entire web page.”

Sources say that Wired that this language -medal extends to continued research. Scientists have been forced to seek their questionnaires and to amend too many published articles to remove reverence for gender or transgender people.

“I think we’re really worried,” said the former CDC official, “about how much damage will be done that we can’t undo.”