[Pyramus]

You are mixing two theories here: A) A lab leak B) Gain of function research.

My understanding is that A) is very much possible because it has happened before (SARS), but we have no evidence yet (and might never acquire).

For B) however, from my limited understanding, there is no strong evidence. We only know about a fraction of existing coronaviruses out there and given we observe one, that has caused a pandemic, the (conditional!) probability that it is well adapted is extremely high (survivorship bias).

If you have a credible source that claims B) please share it.

[bpodgursky]

The Wuhan lab was absolutely involved in gain-of-function research. This has been widely reported https://www.newsweek.com/controversial-wuhan-lab-experiments...

> What's more, Wuhan Institute of Virology scientists have for the past five years been engaged in so-called "gain of function" (GOF) research, which is designed to enhance certain properties of viruses for the purpose of anticipating future pandemics. Gain-of-function techniques have been used to turn viruses into human pathogens capable of causing a global pandemic.

> This is no nefarious secret program in an underground military bunker. The Wuhan lab received funding, mostly for virus discovery, in part from a ten-year, $200 million international program called PREDICT, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and other countries.

[Pyramus]

I'm not doubting that at all, see also this statement by a US embassy [1].

What I'm saying is that we don't have strong (any?) evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is the result of gain of function research. It is entirely possible but the majority of the scientists who do gain of function research say it's unlikely (given what we know today, which might change).

Again, a credible source saying the opposite is appreciated.

[1] https://ge.usembassy.gov/fact-sheet-activity-at-the-wuhan-in...

[Enginerrrd]

>What I'm saying is that we don't have strong (any?) evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is the result of gain of function research

There is analysis that suggests that SARS-CoV-2 wasn't engineered. However, if you were intentionally giving it to a bunch of animals in batches with some interspecies mixing, you wouldn't really expect it to look any different than a natural jump.

[Enginerrrd]

We do at least know that they were doing gain-of-function research on coronaviruses in the Wuhan lab, since the US publicly funded it.

[polartx]

Isn’t he referring to a lab leak of a virus which was engineered with ‘gains of function’. I’m particularly convinced of this theory because it explains the glaring weakness of the Covid-19 virus to UV radiation (ie sunlight). If Chinese researches were modifying viral samples to gain functions (evolutionary or otherwise), weakness against sunlight is a believable oversight, considering it wouldn’t have been subjected to it indoors.

[8note]

Huh? Do most viruses thrive in UV radiation?

I thought UV resistant organisms were usually referred to as extremophiles because it's so infrequent