WEDNESDAY,MARCH 2 , 2022 .THEWASHINGTONPOST EZ RE A
Politics &the NationTEXASSuit filed over order
on transgendercareATexasfamilyanda
psychologistfiledalegal
challengeTuesday, askinga
districtcourttoblockanorder
thatdirectedstateofficialsto
investigatefamiliesforchild
abuseiftheyallowtheirchildren
tomedicallytransitiongenders.
Inalettersentlastweekto
statehealthagencies,Gov. Greg
Abbott(R)notedthattheOffice
oftheAttorneyGeneralhad
determinedthatproviding
medicaltreatmentssuchas
pubertyblockersandhormone
therapycould“legallyconstitute
childabuse”underTexaslaw.
Accordingtodocumentsfiled
inTravisCountydistrictcourt,
JaneDoeisanemployeeofthe
TexasDepartmentofFamilyand
ProtectiveServices.Her16-year-
olddaughter,MaryDoe,is
transgenderandhasbeen
receivingmedicalcarefromthe
samepediatricianformostofher
life.
ThedayafterAbbottissuedhis
order,JaneDoewasplacedon
leavefromtheDepartmentof
FamilyandProtectiveServices,
courtdocumentssay. Twodays
later,achildprotectiveservices
investigatorvisitedthefamily’s
home,courtdocumentssay, and
interviewedbothparents.They
alsointerviewedMaryDoe
separatelyfromherparents.
TheTexaslegislature
consideredtwobillslastyearthat
wouldhavebannedgender-
confirmationsurgery, hormone
therapyandpubertysuppression
treatmentsforTexas’s
transgenderchildren,butboth
diedintheHouse.
Theplaintiffs,whoare
representedbytheAmerican
CivilLibertiesUnion,the
AmericanCivilLibertiesUnionof
Texas,LambdaLegalandthelaw
firmBakerBotts,arguethat
Abbotthascircumventedthe
legislativeprocessinan“attempt
tolegislatebypressrelease.”
—Casey ParksFormer campaignchief for
congressmansentenced in theft:
Aformercampaignmanagerfora
veteranmemberofCongresswas
sentencedtotwoyearsinprison
Tuesdayafterpleadingguiltyto
twofederalcountsinacase
sayinghestolemorethan
$1.4millionfromthecampaign.
JamieSchwartz,42,admitted
embezzlingthemoneywhile
workingforthecampaignsof
Rep.SteveChabot(R-Ohio)
during2011to2019.Schwartz
apologizedtoChabotandhisstaff
beforebeingsentencedinfederal
court,sayinghislifebecamealie.
Schwartzmustrepaythe
$1.42milliontothecampaign,
theCincinnatiEnquirerreported.
Chabot,whoisservinghis13th
U.S.Houseterm,saidin2019that
hehadbeenthevictimof
“financialmalfeasance.”
—AssociatedPressDIGESTunderstand apathogen could be
exploitedtocreateabioweapon.
NIHinJanuary2020askedthe
biosecuritypaneltostartareview
ofpolicies, but thateffortwas
postponedbecauseof the pan-
demic,whenmembersoftheadvi-
soryboard were neededat their
home institutions, accordingto
theagency.
“Researchinvolvingpathogens
is vital for ensuringthe United
States is preparedto rapidly de-
tect,respondto,andrecoverfrom
future infectious-disease threats.
Such researchcan be inherently
high risk given the possibilityof
biosafetylapsesordeliberatemis-
use,”NIH acting director Law-
renceA.Tabaksaidinastatement
announcingthe review. “Howev-
er,notdoingthistypeofresearch
could impair our abilitytopre-
pareforand/orrespondtofuture
consequentialbiologicalthreats.”
Severalscientistswhostudyvi-
ruses andemergentdiseasessaid
theywelcomethe reviewofbio-
safetypolicies.
“Ithinkit’s reallyimportantto
reviewthisstuffandtoregulateit,
and makesure thatit’sregulated
in the right way,”said Angela
Rasmussen, avirologistatthe
UniversityofSaskatchewan.
She acknowledged thatthe re-
viewwillbeconducted amid a
maelstrom of conjectures and
conspiracytheoriesaboutthecor-
onavirus’sorigin.
“ThankstoTwitter and thanks
to the ‘lab leak’ [conjecture], we
have alot of newly mintedbiose-
curityexpertsinthesocialmedia-
verse,”she said. “Really,the big-
gest thingthat’sgoing to be im-
portant to communicate to the
publicisthatthisisnotaninvesti-
gationofthelableaktheory.”
Kristian Andersen,an immu-
nologistand infectious-disease
expertatScripps Researchwho
was the lead author of aMarch
2020NatureMedicinepapersay-
ingthecoronaviruswasnotengi-
neered,said an upgrade to safety
procedureswouldbetimelygivennewknowledgeabout coronavi-
ruses. “Thathas nothing to do
with trying to understand the
originofthepandemic,”hesaid.
Thescientific communityhas
generallyrejectedthebroadspec-
trumof“lableak”theories,which
rangefromChina intentionally
developingabioweapon—apos-
sibilityU.S.intelligence agencies
ruledout—toapurelyaccidental
leak of avirusthatresearchers
wereunawarewasintheirlab.
Obstructionism and lack of
transparencyfrom the Chinese
governmenthave impeded inde-
pendentinvestigations of the vi-
rus’sorigin.SomeRepublicansin
Congressandconservativemedia
commentators have contended,
withouthard evidence,thatthe
originofthevirusinvolvedaChi-
nese researchfacility, with most
attentionfocused on the WuhanInstituteofVirology.
Some researchthere was par-
tially fundedby the National In-
stitute of Allergyand Infectious
Diseases,led for nearly four dec-
ades by AnthonyS.Fauci,Presi-
dentBiden’schiefmedicaladviser
for the pandemic. There is no
evidencethe novel coronavirus
waseverintheWuhanInstituteof
Virologybeforethepandemic.
Scientists who explore the
emergence of the novel coronavi-
rus largely favor the hypothesis
thatitoriginatedthroughapurely
natural “zoonosis,”probablyin-
volvinganimalssoldattheHuan-
an SeafoodMarket in Wuhan. A
significantpercentageofthefirst
patients identified with covid-
had directlinks to the sprawling
marketorlivednearby.
Themarkethypothesiswasfur-
ther advanced Saturdaywiththe0200k400k60 0k80 0k1m1.2m7-dayavg.Feb.29, 2020 Jan. 2021 March 102k4k7-dayavg.Feb.29, 2020 Jan. 2021 March 101m2m3m4m5m7-dayavg.Feb.29, 2020 Jan. 2021 March 1Asof8p.m.Tuesday79, 039 ,553,378,04 6951,59,1,350,4 49TotalDEATHSTotalVACCINEDOSESADMINISTEREDNewcoronaviruscases, deathsand
vaccinedosesin theU.S.,bydayTotalCASES7-dayaverage7-dayaverage7-dayaverageBYJOELACHENBACHTheNational Institutes of
Healththisweekorderedasweep-
ingreviewofgovernmentpolicies
for experimentsinvolvingpoten-
tiallydangerousvirusesandother
pathogens, amove the agency
saidwillbalancethebenefitsand
risksofsuchresearchbutisunre-
lated to the debate over the coro-
naviruspandemic’sorigin.
Thereviewwillbeconducted
by the NationalScience Advisory
Board for Biosecurity, and NIH
hopes to have recommendations
bytheendoftheyear.Inessence,
this is aplea for help in deciding
where to draw the line on re-
search, identifying the experi-
mentsthatrequire special safety
measuresor thatare too danger-
oustobeinitiated.
“Thisisanappropriatetimefor
us to undertakeand ensure that
ourpoliciesareallowingpotential
benefitsofresearchwhilemanag-
ing potential risks,”Lyric Jorgen-
son, acting associate director for
sciencepolicyatNIH, said Tues-
day. “Thisisarounddefinitionsof
whatshould be in and what
shouldbeout.”
Biosecurityand biosafety in
scientific researchhave been in-
tensely controversial topics for
years. Adecade ago, the debate
ragedoverthe publication of re-
search on influenza viruses,
which some scientists feared
couldbeusedbyhostileactorsto
createabioweapon.
More recently,the focus has
beenonwhetherwhathappensin
labs can stay in labs.The global
disasterofthepandemicgaverise
to“lableak”conjecturesthathave
remainedspeculative.
NIH and other government
agencies supportresearch on
pathogensconductedunderstrict
safety standards.Jorgenson said
thegoalwiththenewreviewisto
makesurethebiosecuritypolicies
keeppacewiththescience.
“These pathogens existinna-
ture. They mutate and evolve all
the time,”Jorgensonsaid, citing
the wayinfluenzamutates every
year,and how the coronavirus
evolves as it spreadsand gener-
atesnewvariants.
“Weneedtobestudyingitand
anticipatingitsowecancounter-
balanceit if asituation arises,”
Jorgensonsaid.“Wehavetomake
sure we are doing it in the right
containment level, and the right
biosecuritymeasures are in
place.”
On Monday, NIH convened a
virtualmeetingofthebiosecurity
advisoryboard,whichwillreview
twocategoriesofexperiments.
One is known as “gain of func-
tion”research.Such experiments
study pathogens with the poten-
tial to becomemore capable of
infecting humansor more trans-
missibleamongpeople.NIHcalls
this “researchwith enhancedpo-
tentialpandemicpathogens.”
Theadvisorypanel will also
look at dual use research,which
could provideuseful knowledge
but also pose athreatifmisap-
plied. Forexample,aneffortto
posting online of twoscientific
papers,not yetpeer-reviewed or
publishedinajournal,writtenby
largecollaborations of scientists
and together arguingthatthe
market was clearly the epicenter
ofthepandemic.
Onepaperprovidedananalysis
of the geographical clustering of
patientsinthevicinityofthemar-
ket. Theauthors of thatstudy —
RasmussenandAndersenamong
them —said environmentalsam-
plesinsidethemarketshowedthe
virus was disproportionately evi-
dentinstallssellinganimals.Five
positivesampleswere in astall
thathad been seen by one of the
paper’s authorsin 2014 selling
raccoondogs,amammalcapable
ofcarryingcoronaviruses.
Theother paper said genetic
analysisof early cases revealed
the presenceof twoindependent
lineages of the virus. That sug-
gested to the authorsthatthe
“spillover”fromananimal hap-
pened not once but twice and
possiblyeven more often —with
theadditionallineages hitting a
dead end withoutgainingtrac-
tioninthecommunity.
Althoughtheclusteringofcas-
es in and around the market has
beenknownsincethestartofthe
pandemic,proponentsofthe“lab
leak” conjectures have said the
market could have justbeen the
locationofasuperspreaderevent.
Thenew researchleaves many
questionsyettobeanswered,not-
edAndersen,aco-authoronboth
papers.
“Wepinpointed the market,
but that’sbasicallyall we know.
Wedon’tknowwhichanimals,we
don’t know where theycame
from,” Andersensaid.
Scientists are hopingChinese
researchersreleasemorerawdata
from the environmentalsamples
describedinapaper posted on-
line Fridaybut not yetpeer-re-
viewed.Thepapersaidit“provid-
ed convincing evidence of the
prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the
Huanan SeafoodMarket during
the early stageofCOVID-19out-
break.”
Thenewlypostedscientificpa-
pers should end debate about
where the pandemicbegan, said
RobertF.Garry, aTulane Univer-
sityvirologistwho was aco-au-
thoronbothpapersaswellasthe
2020NatureMedicinereport.
“Itprettymuch screws the lid
onitasfarasI’mconcerned,” said
Garry, who hasbeen among the
mostvocal opponents of the lab
leakspeculation.
EchoingAndersen,Garrysaid
NIH’sreviewisnecessarygiven
discoveries of virusesthatcircu-
late in greatquantityinbatsand
can jump into other animals,po-
tentiallytriggering anotherpan-
demic.
Manyresearchersbelievethese
viruses should be studied only in
high-securityfacilities,Garrysaid
inanemail.
“Virologists are verytired of
being painted as recklesscow-
boys,”hesaid,addingthatregula-
tions covering experiments are
already“verycomprehensive.”NIH orders sweeping review of potentially risky experiments
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