Biden supports gain of function research

 National Review:

The Biden administration remains supportive of gain-of-function research despite the potential risks as long as that research is pursued in a safe and transparent manner, national security council communications coordinator John Kirby explained on Monday.

The controversial practice involves making pathogens more deadly or transmissible in order to better understand current or future pandemics, and thus be able to respond faster. Funding for the research was halted in 2014 during the Obama administration due to concerns about the risks: If modified pathogens escape the laboratory setting, they can cause pandemics.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) lifted that funding pause three years later after the creation of an oversight framework. In 2021, it emerged that U.S. taxpayers had funded research into bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through an intermediary — that is, EcoHealth Alliance. The news gained new relevance last week after the Energy Department’s conclusion that the lab-leak theory of Covid’s origins is probable.

Asked by White House reporter Philip Wegmann if the rewards of gain-of-function research outweigh the risks, Kirby expressed continued support for the practice.

“[The president] believes that [the research is] important to help prevent future pandemics, which means he understands that there has to be legitimate scientific research into…the potential sources of pandemics so that we understand [them] and so we can prevent them from happening,” Kirby said.
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With the belief that Covid was a result of a lab leak, the dangers of the study are evident.   If the US engages in it, hopefully, it will have better security to prevent a leak.

See, also"

The Lab-Leak Theory Was a Victim of Left-Wing Culture Wars