On Thursday, 11 May 2023, the state of Florida enacted a law that bans research that is “reasonably likely to create an enhanced potential pandemic pathogen,” or ePPP. The law, Florida Statues section 381.875, is the first of its kind in the US and marks a major victory in the fight to prevent future lab-generated pandemics.

We, the undersigned, applaud the new Florida law banning ePPP research.  We urge other US states to adopt similar legislation.

Potential pandemic pathogens are viruses, bacteria, or other microorganisms that are highly virulent and highly transmissible. Examples include the viruses that cause COVID-19, SARS, MERS, Ebola, Marburg, and Lassa fever. An ePPP is a potential pandemic pathogen that scientists have manipulated (e.g., for scientific, commercial, or military applications) and made even more virulent or more transmissible than the naturally occurring strain. Laboratory accidents that happen during the course of ePPP research have the potential to trigger devastating pandemics.

ePPP research is scientifically unethical, as it places the public at risk without their consent. ePPP research also has limited benefits, as it does not meaningfully contribute to the development of vaccines or disease treatments. The US federal government has, for decades, failed to enact legislation that meaningfully protects US citizens and the global public from the dangers of ePPP research. Indeed, the US federal government actively puts its citizens and the global public at risk by continuing to fund ePPP research, both in the US and in other countries. This funding continues despite multiple US federal agencies assessing that SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) may have originated as an ePPP that accidentally escaped from a research lab that had been funded by the US federal government.

States therefore have a responsibility to protect their citizens against the dangers of unregulated ePPP research, including ePPP research that is funded by the US federal government. The new Florida law is an important step in this direction and provides a model that other US state governments can immediately adopt.

ABOUT US - Biosafety Now is a U.S.-based non-profit working for a future where scientific research on pathogens supports human life without also threatening it and public trust in science is restored.

Learn more at https://biosafetynow.org/

Text of the law:

381.875 Enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research prohibited.—

(1) As used in this section, the term:

(a) "Enhanced potential pandemic pathogen" means a potential pandemic pathogen that results from enhancing the transmissibility or virulence of a pathogen. The term does not include naturally occurring pathogens circulating in or recovered from nature, regardless of their pandemic potential.

(b) "Enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research" means research that may be reasonably anticipated to create, transfer, or use potential pandemic pathogens that result from enhancing a pathogen's transmissibility or virulence in humans.

(c) "Potential pandemic pathogen" means a bacterium, virus, or other microorganism that is likely to be both:

1. Highly transmissible and capable of wide, uncontrollable spread in human populations; and

2. Highly virulent, making it likely to cause significant morbidity or mortality in humans.

(2) Any research that is reasonably likely to create an enhanced potential pandemic pathogen or that has been determined by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, another federal agency, or a state agency as defined in s.11.45 to create such a pathogen is prohibited in this state.

(3) Any researcher applying for state or local funding to conduct research in this state must disclose in the application to the funding source whether the research meets the definition of enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research.

(4) The Department of Health shall exercise its authority under s.381.0012 to enjoin violations of this section.

(5) This section does not affect research funded or conducted before the effective date of this act