[greenbamboo]

“ they spliced off its spike protein and fused it to the backbone before exposing it to human cells in lab dishes to see if it would grow”

As a lay person, this is how I understand gof, based on articles in the popular press over the past decade or so. Maybe the press has been wrong, they often are, but this strikes me, again a layperson, as an obvious redefinition of gof.

[belltaco]

The backbone virus cannot replicate the new spike attached, so there should be no danger from that experiment. If it infects human cells it will replicate the backbone's spike, not the spliced spike, which does not infect human cells.

It's like your arms are replaced with a chimpanzee's arms. When you have a baby, that baby will have human arms, not chimpanzee's arms.

[greenbamboo]

So it’s only gof if it results in a viable virus? That makes sense. I guess there’s no real danger of a lab escape as long as it’s not a viable virus, but then I do wonder why the backtracking on the lab escape investigation? Was WIC maybe doing gof research and not telling people?