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by criticalmass2 1132 days ago
The downside would be no vaccines for any diseases, as all vaccines are derived from "gain of function" research. There is also not conclusive evidence that this latest pandemic was the result of a laboratory accident. Every other catastrophic pandemic in human history emerged "naturally", and many more will continue to do so.
2 comments
baja_blast 1132 days ago
But vaccine development can only be done with existing viruses circulating in humans. The mutations to the existing virus to test immunity escape are minimal and less risky. But mutating unknown animal/bat viruses to be transmissible towards humans to see how infectious it can possibly be only creates new risks, because if any of those viruses get out of the lab there will be no vaccine (since you can't test the effectiveness of a vaccine without circulation in humans) and to make matters worse the viruses are already predated towards humans!

SARS/MERS were easily contained because the virus needed to adapt and evolve before effectively spreading amongst humans. SARS2 was predated and highly infectious thus containment was impossible.

Also if this research was so essentially, why does EcoHealth still to this day refuse to share their research/data? You'd think that would be useful to have publicly funded research to help with the worst pandemic in 100 years, but I guess not! So why take the risks?

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shon 1132 days ago
To clarify: are you saying that it is not possible to do [any] vaccine research in general without this specific type of gain-of-function research? Citations? Looking to educate myself.
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revelio 1131 days ago
It's nonsense, GoF didn't seem to play any role in vaccine development. It's what virologists tell themselves and each other.
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criticalmass2 1131 days ago
Quoting Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases:

"Some want to pass a law: All gain-of-function should be stopped. But if all gain-of-function stops, you will have no vaccines for flu. You will have no vaccines for any of the other diseases, because all of that manipulates a virus or a pathogen to gain a certain function to be able to make a vaccine."

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