"Gain of function" is regularly done to make various viruses "better" so as to study then how to defend against that potential mutation happening naturally.

See the big scandal from some years ago when the H5N1 virus was modified in a lab to be airborne, and the accusations that such research on such a dangerous virus is just reckless.

That’s interesting but I still don’t understand the motivation. There are plenty of currently successful viruses for research that making one airborne seems like it should be taboo. But again I’m not part of that community so maybe it’s just natural for virologists you want to play with viruses.

You don’t think it is important to understand the root cause of COVID-19 ?

It is going to kill millions of people, potentially reduce the life expectancy of tens of millions more and severely impact everyone on this planet.

No you have me backwards. I don’t understand for what cause CV19 May have been made purposefully. I don’t see who it would benefit.

People have lots of conspiracy theories on motives out there.

If it did come from a lab, said country might be on the hook for reparations due to damage caused by the virus...

How about to find out if it’s possible to artificially start a pandemic ?

Being a scientist and saying it's man-made would get someone a lot of fame in the nutjob community, which they could probably convert to money.

I say nutjob, maybe the rest of the scientists just haven't been convinced by the data yet.