Of course it does. It will impact other countries relationships with china. And it would impact the kind and level of scrutiny over this kind of research.
> It will impact other countries relationships with china. And it would impact the kind and level of scrutiny over this kind of research.
I think the point is that neither of those would have had an effect on the pandemic. By the time it was major news in the US, it was too late for any of that to matter in terms of what to do about this pandemic. Not the next one, or our future relations with China, but with this pandemic.
A) I guess I interpreted "consequences" more generally to also include the consequences beyond the disease itself.
B) I still believe that it would have been important. If it escaped from a lab, then those working in the lab could potentially have important information to share with the world about it. E.g. is it airborne, how much does it mutate, etc. They would have been studying it for a reason.
Based on what implicit assumption? That a government would allow that information to be published? Look at how cagey and not forthcoming the Chinese government was under the current conditions.
Try to extrapolate to what they would act like if it did leak from a lab.