Joe Rogan Experience #2534 - Annie Jacobsen · Aired Jul 31, 2026
Claim summary · not a verbatim quotation
President Obama officially stopped gain-of-function or dual-use research during his time in office.
The finding
What the evidence shows
The Obama administration did pause new federal funding for a narrow set of gain-of-function experiments on flu, MERS, and SARS viruses starting in October 2014, affecting about two dozen grants. But that was a temporary funding pause, not an official stop to all gain-of-function or dual-use research, and a formal review framework replaced it in 2017.
Read the supporting source · www.cidrap.umn.edu ↗Quick answer & review status
Quick answer
Is it true that President Obama officially stopped gain-of-function or dual-use research during his time in office?
Partly. The claim stretches what the evidence shows. The Obama administration did pause new federal funding for a narrow set of gain-of-function experiments on flu, MERS, and SARS viruses starting in October 2014, affecting about two dozen grants. Joe Rogan said it (matched by voice) on Joe Rogan Experience #2534 - Annie Jacobsen, aired Jul 31, 2026, at 7:27. The supporting source is cidrap.umn.edu, linked below.
The context belongs here.
No separately verified on-air correction is recorded for this check. That is not a claim that nobody corrected it.
- Attribution
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- Editorial context review
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- Coverage
- One selected claim from the episode
Revisions to this check
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