HHS Funds Creation of Never-Before-Seen Chimeric H6Nx Bird Flu Viruses Said to Carry Immune-Evasion Traits: Journal 'Nature Communications'
"Pandemics can occur when influenza viruses acquire these abilities," new study admits after lab-engineering those very pathogens.
An HHS-funded study published this month says that scientists have lab-engineered brand-new reassortant “Frankenstein” bird flu viruses said to carry genetic components from the 2024 dairy cow H5N1 outbreak and a purportedly fatal 2025 Washington H5N5 case, creating pathogens the paper warns may possess enhanced immune-evasion potential in humans.
The study, published in Nature Communications, was conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the University of Chicago.
The paper repeatedly warns that the bird flu constructs like the ones these researchers engineered may pose an increased risk to humans because much of the population possesses weak or nonexistent immunity against them.
The experiments align with published gain-of-function definitions involving enhanced immune evasion, altered host range dynamics, and pandemic-preparedness research.
According to a 2022 review published in Advances in Applied Microbiology:
“Gain-of-Function research on viruses is enhancing transmissibility, virus replication, virulence, host range, immune evasion or drug and vaccine resistance to get insights into the viral mechanisms, to create and analyze animal models, to accelerate drug and vaccine development and to improve pandemic preparedness.”
The HHS-funded experiments involved intentionally engineering novel viral combinations specifically associated with reduced existing population immunity and increased human infection risk following reassortment.
You can contact NIAID here, NIH here, and HHS here to voice opposition to taxpayer-funded research on pandemic pathogens—particularly after Congress, the White House, the Department of Energy, the FBI, the CIA, and Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) all acknowledged that the deadly COVID-19 pandemic was “likely” the result of a laboratory incident involving engineered pathogens.
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Scientists Used Reverse Genetics & Synthetic DNA to Construct New Viral Combinations
The paper openly states:
“All viruses used in this study were generated by reverse genetics using bi-directional pHW2000 vectors with synthetic DNA inserts (Integrated DNA Technologies and Twist Bioscience).”
The researchers say they created chimeric reassortant influenza viruses carrying components from:
H5N1 A/Dairy Cow/Texas/24-008749-002-v/2024
H5N1 A/British Columbia/PHL-2032/2024
H5N5 A/Washington/2148/2025
The laboratory-generated viruses combined:
an H6 influenza backbone,
internal genes from A/Puerto Rico/8/1934,
and surface genetic components from contemporary H5 outbreak strains.
Meaning, the resulting reassortant viruses represented new synthetic laboratory-generated viral combinations that did not previously exist in that exact form.
The Central Focus of the Study Was Immune Escape Risk
The core finding of the paper is that changing these viral surface components may significantly alter how much pre-existing immunity humans possess against H5 bird flu strains.
The abstract states:
“Our data suggest that immune history greatly impacts the generation of cross-reactive NA antibodies, and that reassortment with other NAs may increase the risk of H5 infection of humans.”
In plain English, the stated purpose of the study was to determine whether swapping different viral surface configurations into H5 bird flu systems could create strains against which humans possess far weaker immunity.
The paper later warns:
“Overall N5 antibody titers were much lower compared to overall N1 antibody titers, suggesting that H5 viruses that reassort with N5 might pose an increased risk for human infections.”
Meaning, the researchers concluded that some reassorted bird flu configurations may be substantially less recognizable to existing human immune defenses.
Purportedly Fatal Washington H5N5 Case Became Major Focus of the Experiments
The paper specifically focused on the purportedly fatal H5N5 infection reported in Washington state in 2025.
(It is not 100% clear whether influenza was the sole underlying cause of death, or whether the person died with H5N5 as one of multiple contributing conditions. The CDC MMWR case report says the Washington resident “died from acute respiratory failure after receiving a positive influenza A(H5) test result,” but that phrasing still doesn’t prove whether influenza was the only cause versus one contributor among others.)
The Nature study authors write:
“In November 2025, a fatal human infection in Washington was caused by an A6 genotype virus; this genotype possesses an N5 NA, highlighting the potential for exposure to novel NA subtypes which have not yet circulated in humans.”
The researchers then tested human sera against that viral configuration.
The study found:
“Among the 2017 cohort, we identified overall low levels of cross-reactive N5 NAI antibodies, with only 21% of samples (29/139) possessing an NAI50 titer of 40 or higher.”
Meaning, most people tested showed little measurable immunity against the viral surface configuration associated with the fatal Washington H5N5 strain.
Researchers Pandemic Warning
The paper cautions:
“Prolonged circulation in mammalian species may select for substitutions which confer enhanced binding, replication, and transmissibility in humans. Pandemics can occur when influenza viruses—for which population-level immunity is low—acquire these abilities.”
In other words, the paper warns about the very same type of reassortant viral configurations the researchers themselves had just engineered.
NIAID Funded the Research
The paper states:
“This project was funded in part with federal funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under contract no. 75N93021C00015 and grant number R01AI08686.”
The disclosure section also states lead author Scott E. Hensley:
“is a co-inventor on patents that describe the use of nucleoside-modified mRNA as a vaccine platform.”
The paper further states Hensley received consulting fees from:
Sanofi
Pfizer
Lumen
Novavax
Merck
Bottom Line
The paper confirms that HHS has funded scientists to purportedly engineer brand-new synthetic bird flu pathogens designed around viral surface combinations that humans largely do not recognize immunologically.
The researchers then warned that pathogens with those kinds of altered configurations may carry increased human infection and pandemic potential because existing population immunity against them is weak or nonexistent.
In other words, the study involved the laboratory creation of novel bird flu constructs associated with immune-evasion characteristics and elevated pandemic-risk concerns—the same class of traits commonly cited in published definitions of gain-of-function research.
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"While circulating clade 2.3.4.4b viruses do not bind well to human-type receptors and there is no evidence for human-to-human transmission, PROLONGED CIRCULATION IN MAMMALIAN SPECIES MAY SELECT FOR SUBSTITUTIONS WHICH CONFER enhanced binding, replication, and transmissibility in humans. PANDEMICS CAN OCCUR when influenza viruses - for which population-level immunity is low - acquire these abilities."
"We investigated if pre-existing antibody levels against diverse N1 NAs are shaped by an individual’s immune history. We measured NA inhibition (NAI) titers using sera from multiple human cohorts and found that individuals imprinted with H1N1 in childhood possessed higher levels of antibodies that cross-reacted to the NA of H5N1 viruses compared to individuals imprinted with other viruses. Conversely, we found overall lower levels of N5-inhibiting serum antibodies in human sera, suggesting that a virus bearing a novel NA subtype would likely evade pre-existing NA immunity in the human population."