Baric Transcribed Interview (Redacted) — page 53

DC.Scheduling@LexitasLegal.com Trump administration formed that committee. MS. SALAZAR: Which hasn't been formed. DR. BARIC: That's correct. MS. SALAZAR: So it's indefinitely paused. DR. BARIC: It is in purgatory, yes. MS. SALAZAR: Okay. And what is the work, specifically? DR. BARIC: Most of the work was on mouse hepatitis virus. One of the aims included some merbecoviruses, specifically two merbecoviruses called MERS-422 and MjHKU4. And there's some mouse data in there that they want to have reviewed. MS. SALAZAR: Is there a process for -- DR. BARIC: Is there a process? I have no idea. All I know is that the Trump administration has formed a committee to come up with final policy recommendations for what is gain-of-function and what's not. And so in the grant, because there was no structure except the existing 2016 structure, we said depending on however those reviews work, we will work within the context of the new structure, because we have no idea of what they're going to say is GOF or not. MS. SALAZAR: Which was kind of what happened before, right, that it was an NIH decision, or was there more interaction previously?