However, most recently NIH deputy director Richard Tabak
[90] clarified in Congressional testimony on May 16, 2024, that the NIH did fund "generic" gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
[91] When asked if the NIH funded gain-of-function research at the WIH, Tabak replied, "It depends on your definition of gain-of function research. If you're speaking about the generic term, yes we did, because- but this is research, the generic term goes on in many many labs around the country, it is not regulated, and the reason it is not regulated is because it poses no harm or threat to anybody." Tabak did not clarify what "generic" gain-of-function research was or how it differs from normal gain-of-function research, so it is unclear to what extent this testimony differs from previous statements by the NIH, which claimed no gain-of-function research at all was funded by the NIH.