AFLDS Urges Supreme Court Review of Gain-of-Function Accountability

Washington, DC - January 23, 2026

On January 21, 2026, Dr. Simone Gold and the AFLDS legal team filed an amici curiae brief with the United States Supreme Court in support of the Petitioner in Heath v. EcoHealth Alliance, Inc. (25-740). The Petition for a Writ of Certiorari asks the Court to review a Second Circuit decision that prevented a widow from pursuing wrongful death claims arising from her husband’s death during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Petitioner, Susan Heath, is the proposed representative of the estate of her late husband, Henry A. Hurst III, who died from COVID-19 in 2021. Heath alleges that EcoHealth Alliance knowingly used federal grant funds to engage in gain-of-function research on abnormally dangerous SARS viruses, including experimentation that is expected to increase the transmissibility and/or virulence of pathogens, and that this work was conducted through a foreign laboratory with documented biosafety failures.

According to the petition, EcoHealth Alliance continued to outsource this extremely dangerous gain-of-function research to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China after similar gain-of-function work had been paused domestically due to safety concerns. Heath alleges that EcoHealth subcontracted this work to the Wuhan Institute despite known biosafety deficiencies, failed to exercise meaningful oversight, and did not adequately report or halt dangerous experiments. The petition further alleges that in the course of this research, Wuhan Institute  released the novel SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), which rapidly spread around the world and ultimately claimed the life of Heath’s husband.

Rather than allowing these claims to be examined by a jury, the lower courts dismissed the case at the pleading stage, declined to certify novel questions of state tort law, and effectively insulated EcoHealth Alliance from negligence and strict-liability claims involving ultrahazardous activity.

The petition now before the Supreme Court presents a fundamental question of accountability: whether private entities that engage in exceptionally dangerous biological research may be shielded from liability by judicial fiat, or whether families harmed by that research retain the constitutional right to be heard.

America’s Frontline Doctors maintains that gain-of-function research has long been recognized as posing extraordinary risks to public health and human life. AFLDS further contends that denying families access to courts in cases involving mass harms violates the First, Fifth, and Seventh Amendments and removes a critical safeguard against reckless scientific conduct.

“Courts do not have the authority to prevent accountability by granting undeserved ‘judicial immunity’ to bad actors who harm real people. Wrongfully dismissing important cases for unimportant reasons deprives injured people of their fundamental rights to petition the courts for redress of their grievances,” said AFLDS attorney David Dalia. “Where there is a right, there is a remedy. This is especially important where extremely dangerous gain-of-function research or other ultrahazardous activities are involved. When judges deny litigants the opportunity to have juries decide whether ultrahazardous activities caused wrongful deaths, they are violating the Constitution and endangering public health.”

“This case asks whether our courts will tolerate dangerous scientific experimentation without accountability, a risk AFLDS has warned about for years,” said Dr. Simone Gold. “A man lost his life, and a family was denied even a hearing. That is not justice. When lethal research is insulated from scrutiny, the rule of law collapses and the public bears the cost.”

AFLDS maintains that Supreme Court review is urgently needed to restore the right to a jury trial, reaffirm state authority over public health policy, and ensure that no institution or corporation is placed above the law when human lives are at stake.

Stay tuned for further updates on this case and other AFLDS legal initiatives defending medical freedom.

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About AFLDS

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Media Contact Lisa Alexander, Communications Director | Media@AFLDS.org