Since long before COVID, I've been a vehement in my opposition to gain of function research. I've argued that such on pathogens with pandemic potential needs to be carefully regulated if not banned entirely. E.g. https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/943586625174454272

Still, Elon Musk is utterly wrong when he claims that "gain-of-function" research is synonymous with bioweapons development.

NOTE THAT this claim is a prominent theme in Russian propaganda.

@ct_bergstrom
RE GOF: I admit that (as a non-expert) I'm uncomfortable with some GOF research. But I can also see how the risk-reward equation may occasionally tilt towards the reward side under certain circumstances.

So two questions:
1) Are you aware of any troubling new research funded under the NIH guidelines?
2) What would you change in the HHS guidelines, which does require department level review? https://www.phe.gov/s3/dualuse/Documents/p3co.pdf

@twitskeptic Post Covid I’m not sure who’s doing wet. At the time I wrote that thread most of my concern was about work being done with H5N1. In terms of what I would like to see, I’d like to see extraordinary measures, put into place before finding or allowing funded institutions to conduct GOF with pathogens of pandemic potential. This would not be your normal internal small committee stuff.

@twitskeptic I want to see each and every study and it’s associated at facility subject to review at the level of virology and public health community, with a very explicit accounting, for what the immediate benefits of such research might be. In my view it’s too risky to do based on handwaving claims about better understanding these pathogens and their potential directions of future evolution.

@twitskeptic yes, that is an extraordinary bar. But the risk of extraordinary as well, and if the benefits are commensurate, they will be extraordinary enough to make the effort worth it.

@twitskeptic (Where I differ from Elon Musk, I guess, is that I know that gain of function research typically has nothing to do with bioweapons development, and I try to avoid blasting audiences of 100 million with Russian talking points used to justify the invasion of Ukraine.)

@twitskeptic I guess I should also stress that I have no interest in hamstring ordinary working in virology. Want to run through the catalog of one-way mutations from some omicron strain and see what each one does? Be my guest. They’re all out there anyway.

Want to passage H5N1 in ferrets indefinitely to see what happens? You’ve got to be kidding me. This is where that level of review needs to kick in.