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"Gain of function" is a big category, and there are many legitimate reasons for doing such research.
The "humanization" of animal viruses with pandemic-causing potential also falls into that category, as well as manipulations that increase the transmissibility and pathogenicity of those viruses. And that's where I would draw the line, yet both types of experiments have been performed with US funding.
Whether this pandemic was due to a lab leak is a seperate question, and will likely remain a conspiracy theory, so I won't dwell on that too much. It's more important to regulate risky virology going forward. And to that end, it'd be nice to see some accountability from the people that authorized such things in the past.
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