At NIH — where the policy shop has remained unchanged since the Biden administration — a consultant hired by NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya was marginalized as an extremist for pushing for a stricter policy, according to a government source. Ed Hammond, who tracked Fauci’s biodefense buildup for years, was fired from NIH on Aug. 21, he said on X. Hammond declined to comment beyond his tweet.

After a government career lasting a little over two months, this is my final day at the NIH Office of Science Policy.

— Edward Hammond (@pricklyresearch) August 21, 2025

Bhattacharya identified the "crisis of gain of function research” as one of his top five priorities at a March confirmation hearing, yet has not been deeply involved with GOF policy.

A spokesperson for Bhattacharya’s top deputy, NIH Principal Deputy Director Matthew Memoli, declined an interview request.

Bhattacharya in April promoted Memoli’s longtime collaborator Jeffrey Taubenberger to lead the National Allergy and Infectious Diseases Institute (NIAID), Anthony Fauci’s former institute. Taubenberger, who also worked with Fauci on GOF issues, will lead GOF reforms at NIAID, according to an NIH statement to the DCNF.

"Director Bhattacharya has full confidence in Dr. Taubenberger to lead reforms at NIAID that strengthen biosafety, prohibit dangerous gain-of-function research, and align the institute’s work with the true health needs of the American people,” the statement reads.

Taubenberger had throughout his decades-long career worked with Fauci to defend GOF research, including the work in Wuhan in the early pandemic period. Restrictions would have hampered his own career. Taubenberger revived and published the genome of the infamous 1918 flu, also called the "Spanish Flu.”

About 50 million people worldwide died from the flu between 1918 and 1919, and about 675,000 people died in the U.S., per the Cleveland Clinic.

"To my knowledge there hasn’t ever been a lab leak of 1918 Spanish flu … However, the information as to how to make Spanish flu virus has leaked across the globe courtesy of the US taxpayer,” Simon Wain-Hobson, an emeritus professor of virology at the Institute Pasteur, told the DCNF.

"Dr. Taubenberger’s paper has been downloaded in labs across the globe including Russia, North Korea, Iran … And with Dr. Taubenberger atop the NIAID, it is logical that dual use research of concern around infectious agents will not get the thought needed to protect US citizens,” he added.

The policy will be determined by the heads of relevant agencies rather than standardized across agencies. This approach could also invite loopholes from subversive bureaucrats, a separate former government source said, who added that there are teams of scientists dedicated to exploiting loopholes.

The same NIH official responsible for former President Joe Biden’s policy has been tasked by Bhattacharya with overhauling it.

NIH officials intend to maintain certain pre-COVID policies that allowed for coronavirus engineering projects to be offshored to Wuhan, according to three government sources. Projects would fall under a spectrum according to their risk — "green light,” "yellow light,” or "red light” — with "red light” projects recommended by each agency to a higher-level review.

But NIH would determine which of its projects are subject to stronger review without external audits of the completeness of NIH’s reports, according to two government sources.

NIH would also dole out exemptions for "national security” purposes.

NIH contractor Alex Washburne, a former Sandia National Laboratories scientist who in 2023 published research pointing to a probable lab origin of COVID, has pushed for a continuation of gain-of-function research in order to match gain-of-function research in hostile countries like China, according to two government sources.

Washburne shared with the DCNF in June that he is developing dual use research of concern — viral research that could be misapplied as a bioweapon — bringing his future research plans squarely under the policy upon which he advises.

In February 2025, Washburne wrote in his Substack that combatting Trump and "the goons who enable him” was of higher priority than reining in pandemic pathogens, his current task at NIH. Washburne also wrote that he would withhold further analyses about the origins of COVID due to his opposition to Trump.

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