Gain-of-function research is, suffice to say, controversial. For a time U.S. funding agencies imposed a moratorium on funding it. In a classic failure of containment, such work resumed in 2019. There is at least some indication that COVID-19 has been genetically altered and a growing body of (circumstantial) evidence, from the Wuhan Institute’s track record to the molecular biology of the virus itself, suggesting a lab leak might have been the origin of the pandemic.
