CIA Now Favors Lab Leak Theory to Explain Covid's Origins

Re:CIA Now Favors Lab Leak Theory to Explain Covid's Origins by danenania on Saturday January 25, 2025 @11:35PM (#42827729)

Gain-of-function in the virology context doesn’t mean creating helpful microbes/viruses. It means purposely engineering pandemic-caliber viruses so that (the theory goes) we find them before evolution produces them naturally and so have time to study them and create vaccines before they are widespread.

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Re:CIA Now Favors Lab Leak Theory to Explain Covid's Origins by sleeplessworld on Saturday January 25, 2025 @11:49PM (#42827775)

This seems to be one of the most dangerous propositions that I have ever heard of. Given human history, human psychology, human error, politics etc.

What am I missing here? That biolabs are the only human made thing that can be made absolutely 100% secure?

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Re:CIA Now Favors Lab Leak Theory to Explain Covid's Origins by Izkata on Sunday January 26, 2025 @01:17AM (#42828134)

As far as I know you're not missing anything and this is why gain-of-function research was banned in the US for a while. EcoHealth Alliance outsourced it to China in the mid-2010s because of the ban, so technically none of it was happening in the US.

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Re:CIA Now Favors Lab Leak Theory to Explain Covid's Origins by llamaimperative on Sunday January 26, 2025 @11:27AM (#42831206)

> It means purposely engineering pandemic-caliber viruses

This is not true.

GoF includes any research that amplifies specific characteristics. Transmissibility or severity of infection are just two of those possible dimensions.

For example, the research that enables us to produce insulin (and tons of other biologic medicines) with E. coli is GoF.

I lean on the side of banning GoF that's designed to increase transmissibility of a contagion, but that is indeed just a subset of GoF generally.

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Re:CIA Now Favors Lab Leak Theory to Explain Covid's Origins by danenania on Sunday January 26, 2025 @12:30PM (#42831831)

Fair enough that it has that meaning more generally in biology. My point is 100% of the policy discussions about it are referring to that particular subset—no one means producing insulin when they talk about the risks of GoF.

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Re:CIA Now Favors Lab Leak Theory to Explain Covid's Origins by llamaimperative on Sunday January 26, 2025 @12:32PM (#42831850)

Yes but this is what causes confusion when scientists push back against proposed bans which seems like a legitimately insane and evil position to take.

We can sharpen the language and say "ban GoF research that increases transmissibility of infectious disease", for example.

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Re:CIA Now Favors Lab Leak Theory to Explain Covid's Origins by tripletao on Sunday January 26, 2025 @05:50PM (#42835051)

I think the best term of art is ePPP (enhanced potential pandemic pathogens), which clearly limits that scope. Academics use that reasonably often, though politicians and the general public unfortunately don't yet.

There's also GOFROC (gain of function research of concern). That's better than just GOF, but rather vague.

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Re:CIA Now Favors Lab Leak Theory to Explain Covid's Origins by llamaimperative on Sunday January 26, 2025 @05:51PM (#42835060)

This is useful! Thank you for chiming in :)

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