The US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is investigating the activities of more than 120 biological laboratories abroad that have been funded by the US budget for decades, an order issued by President Donald Trump as part of an effort to stop potentially risky virus experiments.
This is reported by The New York Post, to which Gabbard gave a comment.
Gabbard said her team will identify where these labs are located, what pathogens they contain, and what research is being conducted to stop dangerous experiments.
Under Gabbardʼs direction, the US intelligence community will review research at all US-funded biotech labs. This includes facilities engaged in virus amplification experiments and those working to combat dangerous pathogens.
Representatives from Gabbard’s office said the foreign labs are located in more than 30 countries. Some of them have previously received funding through a US Department of Defense program designed to eliminate weapons of mass destruction after the Cold War.
The research is part of the Department of Defense’s Joint Threat Reduction Program, which is also designed to study pathogens to prevent future outbreaks and strengthen US biosecurity. Gabbard’s office said more than 40 of those biolabs are located in Ukraine and could be “at risk of compromise” due to the Russian war.
In May 2025, Trump signed an executive order banning all federal funding for virus enhancement research in China, Iran, or other countries that do not conduct adequate oversight. The Department of Defense’s watchdog had previously been unable to determine how many potential enhanced pandemic pathogens were being studied in China or other countries, even though more than $1.4 billion was spent on such experiments outside the United States between 2014 and 2023.
The National Institutes of Health also admitted that US-funded experiments with bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology from 2014 to 2021 violated the terms of the grant. They made the viruses 10 000 times more infectious, although officials deny that the research caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
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