The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on Tuesday released its long-awaited policy plans for overseeing research that poses risks if misapplied. The initial reviews from experts are mixed.
OSTP’s 31-page policy, which will take effect in one year, aims to define an expanded scope of biological and toxic research subject to additional oversight by the government. It also establishes a framework for overseeing research proposals, and defines the distinct roles of researchers and the federal government.
The policy was accompanied by an 85-page implementation document that further establishes the responsibilities of research institutions as it puts the policy into practice.
Richard Ebright, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University, told Endpoints News that the policy and the implementation document read like two different people wrote the documents. He said the implementation document is convoluted and places too much responsibility on institutions for oversight.
“The complexity of the process means that most researchers and most institutions will be flummoxed by the policy and will be unable to work out their obligations and responsibilities under the policy and unable to execute the policy,” Ebright said.
He also said that the implementation guidance tweaks the interpretation of previous definitions, saying that it effectively eliminates almost all potential pandemic pathogen research from a federal risk-benefit assessment requirement.
But others welcomed the new framework. Tom Inglesby, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, praised the new framework in a blog posted to LinkedIn Tuesday.
“This updated framework represents a significant stride forward in safeguarding public health and in establishing common sense and strong biosafety and biosecurity for research around pathogens that pose the greatest risks in the event of accident or deliberate misuse,” he wrote.
Still, he wrote that some examples included in the implementation guide were unclear and that some pathogens, like mpox, should be elevated in terms of risk.