Biophysical Society Bulletin | September 2021

Public Affairs

House and Senate lawmakers are expected to have an opportunity to discuss their differences over EPSCoR later this year, as they attempt to cobble together a final bill that can garner support from both bodies and President Joe Biden . In the meantime, NSF is assembling a committee that will spend the next several months soliciting the community’s ideas for improving EPSCoR. Around theWorld The Deepening Rift Between Science andMexican President as Research Funds are Diverted Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador continues to deepen the rift between his administration and the research community. Compounding the damage done last year when he eliminated dozens of trust funds that supported science, alleging corruption, Lopez Obrador announced in June that he will be using some of those funds to buy an aging oil refinery. The announcement has only added to ongoing controversy and uncertainty over how the government plans to use the nearly 68 billion pesos ($3 billion) held in the 109 trust funds targeted for termination under a recently approved law. Roughly one-third of the funds—which were used to sup- port scholarships, equipment purchases, and a wide range of other activities—involved scientific research. All the funds are now frozen and scheduled to expire this month. The government previously said the money would be devoted to fighting the pandemic and that the terminations would not affect research. It also said any money in the funds that had come from charitable donations, grants, business income, or nonfederal sources would be returned to its source. The refinery purchase has only added to the indignation. López Obrador said the government will spend $596 million to gain full control of the Shell Deer Park Refinery, built in 1929, it also includes an agreement to take on $490 million in debt held by Shell. While the purchase is in line with the

government’s push for energy self-sufficiency, energy and climate researchers say the purchase is the latest wrong turn in the country’s energy policy. Mexico is already falling short of targets for expanding renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas. WHO Chief Changes Tack on Pandemic Origin Investigation The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is urging China to increase its transparency about the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and allow greater access to its labs to help resolve the origin of SARS-CoV-2. Tedros, who has been criticized for being too deferential to Chinese President Xi Jinping, announced the creation of a new body to conduct the next phase of studies into the emergence of the virus. The new WHO Internation- al Scientific Advisory Group for Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) “will play a vital role in the next phase of studies into the origins of SARS-CoV-2, as well as the origins of future new pathogens.” At a press conference on July 15, Tedros called for more aggressively probing the two leading theories of how SARS- CoV-2 first infected humans and then emerged in Wuhan, China: that the virus made a natural “zoonotic” jump from an unknown animal species into humans or, more controver- sially, that it first infected a human during laboratory or field studies of coronaviruses found in animals. The announcement is an unexpected move that concerns some scientists, includ- ing at least one member of an existing mission the agency organized to study SARS-CoV-2’s origin. Earlier this year, WHO sent a team of international scientists to China to work with colleagues there on a joint mission to study the origin of SARS-CoV-2. The report issued in March by the joint mission, which had just completed the first of two planned phases of studies, then declared the lab origin hy- pothesis “extremely unlikely” and favored the zoonotic theory. During his remarks announcing SAGO, Tedros stated it was “premature” to discount the lab theory.

Apply to be the 2022-2023 BPS Congressional Fellow! Are you interested in working on Capitol Hill and learning more about science policy? All members who have obtained their PhD and are eligible to work in the United States may apply. Application deadline: December 10, 2021 Visit www.biophysics.org for additional information.

September 2021

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