> Farmers, however, are not performing gain of function research on the diseases in their herd.
The phrase "gain of function" has become a general-purpose bogeyman, but 99% of the people using it have no idea what it means.
Farmers are interacting with viruses that are far more dangerous than the gain-of-function viruses. Gain-of-function experiments are generally just characterizing properties of viruses that already exist out in the wild. An effective way of doing that is to insert a component of the wild virus into a virus you can already grow and have characterized in the lab. The lab virus gains a function, but that function already exists in the wild.
> I have advocated for the most basic level of isolation of potentially dangerous experiments
Shi Zhengli and her colleagues are taking far more than the "most basic level" of precaution. Yet you're participating in the witch hunt against her and the virology community.
The phrase "gain of function" has become a general-purpose bogeyman, but 99% of the people using it have no idea what it means.
Farmers are interacting with viruses that are far more dangerous than the gain-of-function viruses. Gain-of-function experiments are generally just characterizing properties of viruses that already exist out in the wild. An effective way of doing that is to insert a component of the wild virus into a virus you can already grow and have characterized in the lab. The lab virus gains a function, but that function already exists in the wild.
> I have advocated for the most basic level of isolation of potentially dangerous experiments
Shi Zhengli and her colleagues are taking far more than the "most basic level" of precaution. Yet you're participating in the witch hunt against her and the virology community.