House Republicans blasted the National Institutes of Health on Tuesday and accused the federal agency of misleading Congress and the public on research into monkeypox viruses.

In an interim report from the GOP-led Energy and Commerce Committee, Republican members accused the NIH, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of misrepresenting monkeypox experiments that would have boosted the viruses’ deadliness.

“In order to start rebuilding trust in our government health agency guidance, agencies like the NIH must be honest and transparent with Congress and the American people,” committee leadership said in a statement. “This report demonstrates a disturbing lack of judgment and accountability from HHS, the NIH, and particularly, NIAID. It is unacceptable and demonstrates the clear need for reform.”

The committee launched its investigation nearly a year and a half ago following an article in a 2022 issue of Science magazine in which Dr. Bernard Moss of NIAID revealed that he was planning to insert segments of a lethal strain of monkeypox into a more a transmissible strain of the virus.

Such an experiment could have created a virus with a case fatality rate of 10% to 15%, according to the committee report.

When committee staff began inquiring about the research in October 2022, Moss and other public health officials insisted the experiments were strictly hypothetical and had never actually occurred.

Because monkeypox is not included in the category of “pathogens with pandemic potential,” the experiments would not have been classified as gain-of-function research.

Public records show that the risky research was approved by NIAID’s Institutional Biosafety Committee in June 2015, however.

According to the committee, HHS, the NIH and NIAID have not produced any documentation or evidence to support their claim that the experiments were not done, and NIAID has also failed to offer any explanation as to why the research was dropped after receiving approval.

The GOP report described the HHS’ behavior as “unacceptable and potentially criminal.”

“This deception appears to be part of a systematic effort by HHS and the NIH to delay and obstruct the Committee’s lawful investigation into NIAID’s risky research,” the report read.

On Tuesday, Republican committee aides told reporters that the norm of cooperation between Congress and the federal health agencies has been eroded and they have failed in their traditional role of working with lawmakers to ensure dangerous research is properly monitored.

They also said that the monkeypox research findings, coupled with the COVID-19 origins investigation, have created bipartisan support for improved biosafety.

The committee’s investigation is ongoing, according to committee aides.

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