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In the United States, the debate over the origins of Covid-19 is shaking up virology research. Ralph Baric, a coronavirus specialist, is being criticized for conducting research in 2014 that was subject to a moratorium, as well as for his collaboration with a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan. The Trump administration is targeting "gain-of-function" experiments, which could increase the virulence of viruses, and which it claims are responsible for the leak of SARS-CoV-2. The retirement of American virologist Ralph Baric, 72, was announced on May 12 by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At the same time, the US administration began cutting off all federal funding to him, a move confirmed the same day by the journal Science , following revelations about it by journalist Paul Thacker in late April. The eminent virologist, who conducted experiments considered risky and collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) before the Covid-19 pandemic, found himself at the intersection of Donald Trump's obsessions. On April 18, 2025, the White House website dedicated to the disease was redesigned: it now presents the leak of SARS-CoV-2 from a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan as the "true" origin of the health crisis, without providing any evidence. It dismisses the hypothesis of human-to-human transmission occurring in a market in the city through contact with animals… a hypothesis that is also unproven. On May 5, 2025, Donald Trump also signed an executive order mandating stricter oversight of gain -of-function (GoF) experiments designed to enhance the virulence of certain pathogens: these experiments "have the potential to significantly endanger the lives of American citizens ." Two days later, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that this type of research was being "paused" until a new policy was established. Approximately forty projects were affected. As early as April 2025, the portion of Ralph Baric's salary linked to NIH grants had been restricted, and a few weeks later, he was placed on administrative leave by his university. The official confirmation of his ostracism sends a strong signal to researchers involved in this type of work. The virologist's fall from grace, whom Le Monde attempted to contact without success, is all the more striking given that, according to Science, his laboratory has benefited from more than $200 million (€172 million) in NIH funding over his forty-year career. In 2022, he received $65 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to develop a center for the discovery of antiviral drugs. Officially, his downfall stems from his involvement in GoF's research. Since the 2010s, following experiments that made the avian flu virus transmissible between ferrets excreting it in droplets, the virology community has been divided on the subject. Some justify this type of research by the hope of discovering mechanisms that would allow for the preventative development of treatments and vaccines. Others consider them too risky given the potential consequences of a laboratory accident. Not to mention the exploitation of this dual-use knowledge (of both civilian and military interest) by terrorist groups or certain states. In 2012, Anthony Fauci, the US lead for civilian and biodefense pathogen research, stated that "the benefits of these experiments and the resulting knowledge outweigh the risks. " Donald Trump's future "Mr. Covid," who would become his nemesis for opposing him on the pandemic's management, was a major provider of public funds to the GoF when he headed the NIAID. "Nonsense" Ralph Baric's collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology since the 2010s has led some proponents of the lab leak theory to attribute responsibility for triggering the health crisis to him. This was the case with US Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., who criticized Baric for this collaboration in a 2023 book. Widely cited by conspiracy theorists, virologist Robert Redfield, who headed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when the pandemic began, considers it possible that "the virus was born in Chapel Hill," meaning that it was created in the United States before escaping to China, again without providing any evidence. In the email informing Ralph Baric of the three-year funding cut, which he shared with Science, the US administration made no mention of SARS-CoV-2. The stated reason concerned research dating back to 2014. Several incidents in virology laboratories, and the debate surrounding gain-of-function experiments deemed irresponsible by some scientists, had led the Obama administration to institute a moratorium – lifted at the end of 2016 during the transition to the first Trump presidency. The US administration accuses Ralph Baric of misleadingly presenting certain work on bat viruses that escaped the moratorium, even though he had publicly labeled them GoF. In 2015, he himself acknowledged, along with Shi Zhengli of the WIV, in Nature Medicine, that "scientific committees might consider similar studies manufacturing chimeric viruses based on circulating strains as too risky to continue." Ralph Baric called the accusations threatening his funding "bullshit," he told Science, adding that he intended to appeal. Before him, in early 2025, following an investigation launched under Joe Biden, the US administration revoked federal grants for British national Peter Daszak, former president of the NGO EcoHealth Alliance, who had encouraged its collaboration with WIV. In 2018, Baric, Daszak, and Shi Zhengli requested $14.2 million in funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for a project that aimed to create chimeras sharing a striking characteristic with SARS-CoV-2. They planned to insert a furin cleavage site into these composite viruses, which could facilitate entry into cells. SARS-CoV-2 is currently the only known sarbecovirus to possess this structure. This project, dubbed "Defuse," was not funded, but many are questioning the coincidence with the emergence shortly thereafter in Wuhan of the agent responsible for COVID-19. “I don’t know if the pandemic resulted from a lab leak or transmission from an animal in a Wuhan market. But it’s extraordinary that Baric, who is a great scientist, forgot to mention the Defuse project before it was revealed in 2021. This does him a lot of damage,” observes virologist Simon Wain-Hobson, professor emeritus at the Pasteur Institute. A longtime opponent of gain-of-function experiments, he asserts that “none of the information in his Nature Medicine study could have been useful in preventing a pandemic.” For him, the arguments justifying the use of GoF are “bullshit.” Settling the Covid years In 2021, Ralph Baric co-signed a letter published by Science calling for the investigation into the origin of the pandemic to more thoroughly explore a possible laboratory leak in China—even though he believes there is “no strong evidence” to support the hypothesis of a synthetically assembled virus. His call for Chinese transparency contrasts sharply with his own university’s repeated efforts to evade requests for information about its activities. In March 2025, Baric criticized the WiV in The New York Times for conducting risky experiments without taking adequate precautions. These spotlights on China did not protect him after Donald Trump's return to power. The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) reiterated that the proceedings against him must be "grounded in scientific rigor and free from political influence. "The pause on seven types of experiments considered GoF in April 2025 abruptly halted some work that frankly wasn't considered problematic in our field," observes microbiologist Victor DiRita, who sits on the ASM board. While he admits to being concerned about experiments aimed at extending the pathogenicity of certain microbes, he says he is uneasy when figures like Ralph Baric, "whose work on coronaviruses has advanced treatments," are targeted by such proceedings. The impact of this latest pause on the GoF “has been both positive and negative,” according to microbiologist David Relman (Stanford University). “It has raised awareness among many scientists about the risks involved in their work,” but due to a lack of clarity, it may have led “to self-censorship regarding certain experiments that probably should have continued.” For him, the work on these issues remains incomplete: “There are insufficient resources to conduct an effective review of this research, and we lack clear definitions of the red lines that must not be crossed.” This extended pause comes as the Trump administration seeks to settle accounts with the Covid years. In late April, a close associate of Anthony Fauci, David Morens, was indicted for attempting to discuss the origins of the pandemic outside official channels, in order to evade the Freedom of Information Act, which could later make his communications public. Anthony Fauci, for his part, is protected by a pardon dating back to 2014, granted by Joe Biden on the last day of his presidency in January 2025, aimed at disarming the Trumpian vendetta. Has Jeffery Taubenberger, who took over as interim director of the NIAID in April 2025, just fallen victim to this? Famous for reconstructing the genome of the Spanish flu, which is highly favorable to the GoF (Government of Freedom), he reportedly resigned two weeks ago, according to Stat News. Many proponents of the lab leak theory were calling for his removal. Other officials at this institute, which has a budget of $6.6 billion, have recently been forced out, according to Nature . This is just one facet of the chaos that has reigned in the American scientific and medical world since Donald Trump's return: half of the NIH (National Institutes of Health) are currently being led by interim directors. Lack of irrefutable material evidence In related news, on May 14, Republican Senator Rand Paul, who accuses Anthony Fauci of having funded risky WIV research through the EcoHealth Alliance, questioned a CIA whistleblower. James Erdman, an opponent of Covid-19 vaccination, asserted that his agency's analysis, which initially leaned toward the lab leak theory, was influenced by Anthony Fauci. The CIA hierarchy reportedly disavowed its own experts. However, since Donald Trump's return to power, the agency considers the lab leak theory the most likely, though with a "low" level of confidence in this hypothesis. According to James Erdman, the boundaries between public health and biodefense have been permanently blurred since the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the war in Iraq, with the establishment of committees such as the Biological Sciences Experts Group (BSEG). Scientists from academia were invited to these committees to assess the bioterrorist threat. He argued that this system allowed researchers to influence funding allocations without concern for conflicts of interest. Ralph Baric was one of the experts consulted by intelligence agencies. The CIA, both before and during the pandemic, heard from him, and his CV indicated ( though it no longer does ) that he had been part of the BSEG since 2009, according to Gilles Demaneuf, a key figure in Drastic, a citizens' group investigating the origins of Covid-19, which revealed the Defuse project. For David Relman, who sits on the scientific advisory board to the Department of Defense, after the anthrax attacks and the rise in fears about the bioterrorist threat, "it made perfect sense to create mechanisms for intelligence services and scientists to share knowledge in both directions." But at the same time, he argues, "the considerable increase in funding allocated to biodefense [ $27 billion requested in 2026 ] has indeed encouraged a lot of risky research. Some of it was probably useful and necessary, some of it was not." The debate surrounding the origin of Covid-19 unfolds against this backdrop, where ideological motivations obscure legitimate scientific, ethical, and public health questions. With the potential to incite a witch hunt, it continues to resurface, even as irrefutable evidence to substantiate it remains lacking. The World Health Organization, from which the United States has withdrawn, tirelessly calls for transparency on the subject, primarily from China, to explore the two possibilities: a laboratory leak and zoonotic transmission. by @hervenirom of @lemondefr lemonde.fr/sciences/artic…
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