Gain of Function Experiments - redux

The Chinese call questions "politicized misinformation."

Did the COVID-19 pandemic start with a Chinese lab leak? Research referred to as “gain of function" is common at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and it was performed on pathogen bat viruses at a lab security level on par with a dentist's office. Adament Chinese denials that a leak occured are falling flat when investigations are not being allowed by the regime.

Experimenting with pathogens to force them to mutate to become more lethal or transmissible to humans is an ethical issue. Nobody can possibly say if the benefits outweigh the risks. Safety lapses involving avian flu, smallpox, and anthrax point out that leaks are not uncommon. In 2014 the U.S. put a moratorium on funding gain-of-function research involving influenza, MERS, and SARS. The moratorium was lifted in 2017.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has long been tied to the Chinese military. China’s unwillingness to release information has heightened suspicions that COVID-19 was engineered as a bio-weapon, and started a global pandemic with a leak from the Wuhan lab.

See ----->Secrecy over fired scientists from Canada's level 4 lab