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NIAID Funds Gain-of-Function Study Engineering Novel Influenza Viruses

Despite claims the U.S. has stopped bankrolling gain-of-function experiments

By Jon Fleetwood | January 23, 2026

A new peer-reviewed study published this week states that federally funded researchers genetically engineered viruses that gained biological functions not present in any naturally occurring strain, including new host-entry mechanisms, cross-species antigen display, and mammalian lethality.

In multiple cases, viral surface proteins from one species and virus family were deliberately inserted into the genetic backbone of an entirely different virus, creating laboratory chimeras that bridge species and viral lineages that do not naturally mix.

The paper, “Immunogenicity and Efficacy of a Rabies-Based Vaccine against Highly Pathogenic Influenza H5N1 Virus,” appears in Emerging Microbes & Infections.

The study documents three distinct categories of functional gain:

1. transfer of influenza entry machinery into foreign viral backbones,
2. reprogramming of rabies virus to perform influenza functions, and
3. creation of new influenza chimeras that are lethal in mammals.

(Editor’s note: This article makes no claims about virology and/or terrain theory. It is reporting what NIAID-funded scientists claim to be doing with American taxdollars.)

The authors state:

“This study was supported by… the Center for Research on Influenza Pathogenesis and Transmission (CRIPT), one of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) funded Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response (CEIRR; contract # 75N93021C00014), and by NIAID contract SEM-CIVIC (contract number 75N93019C00051).”

NIAD is under the control of Director Jeffery Taubenberger, who is directing U.S. taxdollars toward influenza gain-of-function experiments while holding a patent for an influenza vaccine at the center of the Trump administrations $500 million influenza vaccine program.

This raises national security and conflict of interest concerns, as it represents the simultaneous creation of a lucrative problem and solution.

NIAD is under the authority of U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS), which is led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Animal experiments were approved under:

“the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of Thomas Jefferson University (TJU).”

Influenza Host-Entry Functions Transferred Into a Different Virus

The authors state that they created a vesicular stomatitis virus whose native entry protein was replaced with influenza H5:

“VSV∆G-H5-GFP encoding either the clade 1 H5 (A/Viet Nam/1203/2004(H5N1) or the circulating clade 2.3.4.4b cow was generated as described.”

This describes a virus that now uses influenza hemagglutinin to enter host cells—a function VSV does not naturally possess.

It also represents a direct cross-species and cross-virus transfer of host-entry machinery, merging an avian influenza protein with a livestock-associated strain and a human-infecting viral backbone in a single engineered system.

Rabies Virus Reprogrammed to Display & Deliver Influenza Antigen

The study confirms that a rabies virus was engineered to express influenza H5:

“We developed a rabies virus-based H5 vaccine (RABV-H5) by insertion of a synthetic full-length codon-optimized HA ORF of the Influenza virus A/Vietnam 1203/2004(H5N1) into the BNSP333 rabies vaccine vector between the N and P genes.”

The authors further state:

“Presenting both RABV-G and the antigen of choice on the surface.”

This confirms that a neurotropic virus was genetically modified to perform a new influenza-specific function.

The lab construct combines a mammalian neurotropic virus with an avian influenza surface antigen, creating a synthetic cross-species hybrid that does not exist in nature.

Creation of Novel Influenza Viruses That Did Not Exist in Nature

The paper says that new influenza viruses were constructed by genome segment replacement:

“PR8-H5N1, a recombinant Puerto-Rico 8 influenza A virus (A/PR8) in which the HA and NA genomic segments have been replaced with the respective segments of H5N1.”

A second engineered virus is identified:

“Influenza virus A/PR8-H5N1 bovine/Ohio/439/2024 (2024).”

These viruses did not exist prior to laboratory construction.

Engineered Viruses Demonstrated Mammalian Pathogenicity

The authors report intranasal infection of mice with the engineered viruses:

“On days 104 or 150, mice were challenged by IN instillation with 0.05 ml of either 1E5 TCID50 of Influenza A/PR8-H5N1 (Viet Nam 1203 or Cow) or with 100 pfu of HPAI-H5N1 Viet Nam 1203 (2004) diluted in PBS+1% heat-inactivated FBS.”

They further confirm the dose was lethal:

“[O]n day 104 were challenged by IN instillation with a 1E5 pfu lethal dose of A/PR8-H5N1 Viet Nam 1203 virus (>100LD50).”

The paper documents viral replication in lungs:

“While unvaccinated mice had about 1E6 TCID50/ml of replicating virus in the lungs.”

And describes lung pathology:

“Severe and chronic bronchiolocentric infection with bronchiolar and peribronchiolar infiltration of lymphocytes, associated with interstitial pneumonitis and expanded alveolar wall due to edema and inflammation.”

Bottom Line

The new study makes clear that gain-of-function virus creation is allegedly still being carried out with U.S. taxpayer dollars, despite the national security and biosafety risks such work poses to the very population funding it.

Congress, the White House, the Department of Energy, the FBI, the CIA, and Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) have confirmed that the COVID-19 pandemic was likely the result of lab-engineered pathogen manipulation.

Why does the U.S. continue to fund the same experiments that are said to have caused the last pandemic?

January 23, 2026 - Posted by aletho | Militarism | United States