USAID’s overseas labs and reckless research: The real culprit behind disease outbreaks, says biosafety expert
By willowt // 2025-03-13
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  • Biosafety expert Richard H. Ebright challenges the New York Times' narrative, arguing that USAID's funding of high-risk research and poorly regulated overseas labs, not budget cuts, is the primary driver of global disease outbreaks.
  • The Times claimed that reduced USAID funding increases the risk of infectious disease outbreaks. Ebright counters that USAID's reckless support for dangerous research abroad has historically fueled health crises, not prevented them.
  • U.S. agencies, including USAID, have spent billions on constructing unsafe labs and funding unnecessary, high-risk pathogen research overseas. Ebright cites USAID's $60 million grant to EcoHealth Alliance for SARS coronavirus research in Wuhan as a potential catalyst for the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Ebright criticizes gain-of-function research, which enhances pathogen transmissibility or virulence, as unregulated and high-risk. He calls for independent oversight to prevent future outbreaks caused by reckless experimentation.
  • Ebright and others advocate for reducing funding for high-risk research programs, arguing that this would prevent future pandemics. They emphasize the need for accountability and reform in how U.S. agencies manage and regulate global health research.
In a scathing critique of the New York Times’ recent reporting, biosafety expert Richard H. Ebright, Ph.D., has turned the narrative on its head, arguing that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and its funding of overseas labs are the true catalysts for global disease outbreaks—not the recent budget cuts to the agency. Ebright, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology and lab director at Rutgers University’s Waksman Institute of Microbiology, spoke exclusively with The Defender, challenging the Times’ claim that reduced USAID funding is “setting the stage for disease outbreaks.” Instead, he asserts that the agency’s reckless support for high-risk research and poorly regulated labs abroad has been the real driver of global health crises.

The Times’ misguided narrative

Last week, the New York Times published an article titled “Deepening Peril of Disease As Trump Cuts Foreign Aid,” warning that reductions in USAID’s budget would leave the world vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks. The piece quoted current and former USAID officials, health organization members and infectious disease experts, painting a grim picture of a world made “more perilous” by funding cuts. But Ebright, a leading voice in biosafety and biosecurity, says the Times got it completely wrong. “The facts of the matter are that USAID’s and other agencies’ support for overseas labs and reckless overseas research has been setting the stage for disease outbreaks,” Ebright told The Defender. “Ending this insanity will set the stage for reducing disease outbreaks.” Mary Holland, CEO of Children’s Health Defense, echoed Ebright’s sentiment, stating, “Dr. Ebright is spot on—lessening the U.S. role in funding ‘pandemic preparedness’ will reduce outbreaks, not increase them.” Holland criticized the Times for spreading fear, noting that the article’s core message was to “be afraid” of reduced funding, while ignoring the dangers posed by USAID’s past actions.

Billions spent on “unneeded and unsafe labs”

Ebright pointed to the irony of the Times’ opening line, which highlighted “dangerous pathogens left unsecured at labs across Africa.” He explained that the primary reason for such vulnerabilities is the billions of dollars spent by U.S. agencies—including USAID, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—to construct and fund labs overseas. “U.S. agencies have spent billions of dollars over the last two decades to construct unneeded and unsafe labs overseas, and to fund unneeded and reckless research on discovering and enhancing new dangerous pathogens in labs overseas,” Ebright said. He cited USAID’s 60 million grant to EcoHealth Alliance, a now-debarred NGO, as a prime example. EcoHealth used these funds to conduct high-risk research on SARS coronaviruses in Wuhan, China — research that Ebright believes led to the COVID 19 pandemic, which has claimed 20 million lives and cost the global economy 25 trillion. Ebright also revealed that USAID had allocated over 200 million to EcoHealth and its partners in Project PREDICT to discover new bioweapons agents overseas. Before COVID−19 emerged, USAID was even planning a 1.2 billion expansion of this effort through the Global Virome Project, aimed at cataloging hundreds of thousands of novel viruses. “This is not pandemic preparedness,” Ebright said. “This is pandemic creation.”

Gain-of-function research: A dangerous game

Ebright has long been a critic of gain-of-function research, which involves enhancing the transmissibility or virulence of pathogens. In June 2024, he testified before the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, arguing that such research has no civilian application and poses significant risks. “Researchers undertake it because it is fast, it is easy, it requires no specialized equipment or skills, and it was prioritized for funding and has been prioritized for publication by scientific journals,” Ebright said during the hearing. He emphasized that gain-of-function research is largely unregulated, with no independent oversight to ensure safety. “There needs to be an independent agency that oversees and imposes regulation on this scientific community that has successfully resisted and obstructed regulation for two decades,” Ebright told The Defender.

A call for accountability and reform

Ebright’s revelations underscore the urgent need for accountability and reform in how the U.S. funds and regulates high-risk research abroad. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the dangers of poorly managed labs and reckless experimentation, yet U.S. agencies continue to pour billions into projects that prioritize discovery over safety. As Ebright and Holland have pointed out, reducing funding for these programs is not a threat to global health—it’s an opportunity to prevent future outbreaks. “USAID has been funding ‘gain-of-function’ or bioweapons research overseas for decades, leading to undisputed lab leaks and outbreaks,” Holland said. “The reality is likely the opposite of what the Times is suggesting.” The question now is whether policymakers will heed these warnings and take meaningful steps to rein in the reckless practices that have put the world at risk. For Ebright, the answer is clear: “Ending this insanity will set the stage for reducing disease outbreaks.” The stakes could not be higher. As the world continues to grapple with the aftermath of COVID-19, the lessons of the past must guide the decisions of the future — before another pandemic emerges from the very labs meant to protect the people. Sources include: ChildrensHealthDefense.org Rutgers.edu TheThinkingConservative.com
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