The Biden administration has halted a $125 million research program that aimed to collect and isolate thousands of exotic pathogens amid concerns from lawmakers and scientists that the research could trigger an accidental outbreak, The Washington Post reported Sept. 7.
The Discovery and Exploration of Emerging Pathogen-Viral Zoonoses program, or DEEP VZN for short, aimed to collect nearly half a million specimens from wildlife around the world and isolate at least 12,000 novel viruses to study further, with the goal of identifying previously unknown viruses that could pose pandemic threat to humans.
The program was set to run through 2026, but in July, the U.S. Agency for International Development notified the program's main contractor that it was being terminated. According to the Post, a spokesperson for the department said the funding was being pulled after a reevaluation of the "relative risks and impact" of government-funded efforts to prevent future pandemics.
The virus-hunting endeavor has been controversial, with opponents saying searching for exotic viruses is just as likely to spark an unintended outbreak as it is to prevent one. A USAID spokesperson told the news outlet that as it unwinds the DEEP VZN program, it's expanding other efforts focused on emerging diseases in dozens of countries.