Untitled Document

[00:00:00] Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Dr. [00:00:01] Bitaria, good to see you again. Welcome. [00:00:04] Two topics for you today. I want to [00:00:05] start on the question of public trust. [00:00:07] You were talking about it earlier, [00:00:09] public trust and public health. One of [00:00:10] the things that so badly undermine [00:00:12] public trust in the NIH in particular, [00:00:14] and I think you addressed this when you [00:00:15] were before the committee the first time [00:00:16] for your confirmation hearing was the [00:00:18] work that NIH did and funded at the [00:00:20] Wuhan Institute of Urology for Corona [00:00:23] virus gain of function research and of [00:00:25] course lied about it. for 2 years or [00:00:27] more. NIH denied that there had been any [00:00:29] funding whatsoever that had gone to [00:00:31] Wuhan and then ultimately had to admit [00:00:33] after public reporting that indeed there [00:00:36] had been gain of function research with [00:00:38] NA NIH money through Ecoalth Alliance [00:00:41] that had gone to Wuhan. My question to [00:00:43] you is this. Has the NIH done under your [00:00:45] leadership now a thorough review of all [00:00:49] of the grants or other funding streams [00:00:51] that may have gone not only to Wuhan but [00:00:53] to other labs in China. Do we have a [00:00:56] handle now on what NIH was doing over [00:00:59] the last decade plus in funding? I think [00:01:02] this is so important because we were [00:01:04] misled. I say we, I mean the American [00:01:05] people were misled and lied to. And [00:01:07] those of us who said, "Wait a minute, we [00:01:09] think there's a funding stream there. We [00:01:11] were called conspiracy theorists, cooks, [00:01:14] crazies. It turns out it was 100% [00:01:16] correct." So, has has NIH done a review [00:01:18] of what funding streams have gone to [00:01:20] Wuhan and to other labs? So, Senator, [00:01:22] I've I I've been focused primarily on on [00:01:25] making sure that we don't concurrently [00:01:26] have or in the future have. So, I put in [00:01:28] policies to have better oversight of [00:01:30] foreign collaborations. I've worked very [00:01:32] hard on the dangerous gain of function. [00:01:33] We paused 40 grants that have some [00:01:35] potential risk of dangerous gain of [00:01:37] function and put in policy so that never [00:01:39] happens again because that's to me [00:01:40] that's the most important thing. We [00:01:42] can't ever do it again. Um I I I'm [00:01:44] working on the review. It's a long long [00:01:47] review and it's going to and I'd love to [00:01:48] work with uh with with uh with with [00:01:51] Congress and uh it's something that [00:01:53] other parts of the administration are [00:01:55] also interested in. It's a comp it's a [00:01:57] long complicated story that [00:01:58] unfortunately doesn't just the involve [00:01:59] the NIH. Uh it also involves partners, [00:02:02] foreign partners and so I think it's [00:02:04] something that we really should do but [00:02:06] we haven't I can't tell you we completed [00:02:08] it at this point. [00:02:09] >> Don't you think that that accountability [00:02:10] is important? I mean, don't you think to [00:02:11] restore public trust is important that [00:02:13] we level with the American people, that [00:02:14] there's transparency, that we correct [00:02:17] the record and say, "Here's actually [00:02:18] what your government did with your tax [00:02:20] money." Maybe it'll be little. I mean, [00:02:22] maybe there won't be much beyond what [00:02:24] went to Wuhan. I I hope that's the [00:02:25] answer. Maybe it's more than that. [00:02:27] Whatever it is, I I think the public [00:02:29] deserves to know. And frankly, having [00:02:31] been misled, this body was misled. Maybe [00:02:33] this committee, certainly the Homeland [00:02:35] Security Committee was misled for the [00:02:37] better part of two years when we were [00:02:38] told over and over and over and over no [00:02:42] tax money ever went to Wuhan. No gain of [00:02:44] function research. That was a lie. That [00:02:46] was a lie from the leaders of NIH at the [00:02:49] time. I think those lies need to be [00:02:52] corrected and the facts, all of the [00:02:54] facts, however sorted and unpleasant [00:02:56] they may be for the institution, need to [00:02:58] come out so that the public can say, [00:03:00] "Okay, we've cleaned house here. We've [00:03:02] got some confidence in what our own [00:03:04] government is doing with our tax money. [00:03:06] Don't you agree with that? [00:03:07] >> I do agree with that. After after a [00:03:09] patient dies in a hospital, there's [00:03:10] often a conference, a morbidity to [00:03:12] mortality conference where there's just [00:03:14] an honest conversation what went wrong. [00:03:16] I think the United States desperately [00:03:17] needs that [00:03:18] >> desperately. Well, will you make that a [00:03:20] priority in your time at at NIH? [00:03:23] >> Happy to happy to collaborate with you [00:03:24] and others uh in Congress to make that [00:03:26] happen. [00:03:26] >> Good. I think it's absolutely vital. Let [00:03:28] me switch topics now and ask you about [00:03:30] the health of America's children. [00:03:31] wondering how closely you've looked at [00:03:33] the effect of social media, big tech, [00:03:36] social media, and AI on children's [00:03:39] health. And I submit that this is be [00:03:42] increasingly becoming a public health [00:03:44] crisis. Here's what I'm thinking. I've [00:03:45] heard from parents who've testified [00:03:47] before me and other committees that I [00:03:49] chair that their children have been led [00:03:52] to experiment with suicide and [00:03:55] ultimately self harm and ultimately in [00:03:57] many instances sadly carry out plans for [00:04:00] suicide at the behest of AI chatbots. [00:04:03] The data on social media and children's [00:04:06] mental health, children's physical [00:04:08] health is astounding. Is NIH here's my [00:04:10] question. Is NIH studying the effects of [00:04:13] social media, including AIdriven social [00:04:16] media, on children? Are are you looking [00:04:17] at that linkage from a health [00:04:18] perspective? [00:04:19] >> I I I've seen those reports also and as [00:04:21] a parent myself, tremendously concerning [00:04:23] to me. uh um the uh NICD, the National [00:04:26] Institute for Child Health Development [00:04:28] has a program on this uh although on the [00:04:31] specifically on AI uh and suicide. I'd [00:04:33] have to look to see but you know that [00:04:35] that that's a focus to make sure that [00:04:37] our children grow up in a country where [00:04:39] they where they where they're not [00:04:40] exposed to those kinds of dangers and [00:04:42] we're going to have excellent science on [00:04:43] that. If we don't already, we will I [00:04:44] will we'll make sure that to to uh focus [00:04:46] on it. [00:04:47] >> Good. We we desperately need scientific [00:04:49] focus on it. We need good science on it. [00:04:51] We need good data. And I will just tell [00:04:52] you as a parent, I've got three children [00:04:53] of my own, uh, three pretty small [00:04:55] children. And when I talk to my fellow [00:04:57] parents and when I look at the numbers, [00:04:58] I mean, in a recent study, 84% of [00:05:00] parents said that they were very [00:05:01] concerned or at least somewhat concerned [00:05:04] about the effects of social media on [00:05:05] their children. And when you talk to [00:05:07] parents who have had chat bots urge [00:05:10] their children to harm themselves, harm [00:05:13] family members, harm parents, or heaven [00:05:16] forbid, take their own lives. This is a [00:05:18] crisis, and it's not an isolated crisis. [00:05:20] It is a systemic crisis in every school [00:05:23] and I dare say in almost every home [00:05:25] across the country. I think we need to [00:05:27] have a comprehensive look from a data [00:05:29] perspective and a science perspective of [00:05:30] what this is doing to our children so we [00:05:32] can figure out what we're going to do to [00:05:34] protect kids and protect parents. [00:05:35] >> I entirely agree with you, Senator. [00:05:37] >> Thank you, Mr.